° 1948

Born in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

Cildo Meireles (1948, Brazil, lives in Rio de Janeiro) emerges early as artist, with a series of projects in 1969 that investigated the notion of lived physical and social space through the colour and texture of material, a theme that recurs in later three-dimensional works such as 'Inmensa' (1982). The increasingly repressive military dictatorship in Brazil also prompts him to create politically engaged works. The ‘insertion’ and ‘circulation’ pieces are well-known: the anti-imperialist text printed onto Coca-Cola Bottles in 'Inserçoes em circuitos ideológicos' (‘Insertions into Ideological Circuits’, 1970) or the 'Zero Cent, Zero Centavo' and 'Zero Dollar' pieces (1974–1984).