Hélio Oiticica developed the concept of ‘tropicamp' in the text ‘MARIO MONTEZ, TROPICAMP' (1971) to critique the commercialisation of the New York avant-garde. These notes contextualise the essay, translated in this issue into English for the first time.
Hélio Oiticica’s ‘MARIO MONTEZ, TROPICAMP’ was first published in Portuguese in late 1971 in Presença, a magazine co-edited by Torquato Neto in Rio de Janeiro. It has since nearly been forgotten. The translation published here aims at making ‘MARIO MONTEZ, TROPICAMP’ accessible to a larger public and bringing Oiticica’s observations back into circulation.
