The Art Institute of Chicago opened in February a major retrospective exhibition of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980), “arguably the most influential Latin American artist of the post–World War II period and is recognized for his significant contributions to the development of contemporary art. A relentless innovator always pushing the traditional boundaries of art, Oiticica moved rapidly and radically from early works influenced by European modernism to large-scale installations that were meant to be physically experienced and often to critique political and social issues”. 

I knew Helio since a very early age, when, as a child, I was a student of his. In 1970 I reconnected with him. I was attending College in Swarthmore, Pa., and he had moved from Brazil to New York. I visited him often in his home/studio in the Lower East Side. 

Until 1974, when I came back to Brazil, we collaborated on various projects, including photographs and films. On March 2nd, 2017, I presented some of these Super8mm films at the Art Institute in a conversation with the exhibition curator Lekha Waitoller. They can be seen on my Vimeo channel and on Call me Helium, a collaborative project my brother Thomas Valentin and I did with Helio in 1974. In the exhibition is shown the film One Night on Gay Street, that we did in 1975 and was especially restored and printed on 16mm.