Paulo Reis ///
The transitory and the organic in the work of Lygia Pape

To think about Lygia Pape’s work means thinking about experimentation, nonconformism, risk and creative freedom. Due to being a restless producer of images and thoughts, Pape earned the title “a permanently open seed” from Hélio Oiticica, as “seeds are centres of energy waiting for the moment to break out”[1]. In researching into a variety of different cultural issues, also allied to researching into materials, Lygia established herself as a varied artist, without a style in the normal sense, other than her own style, as she often announced herself to be “an open artist free from the ties of the market”. That identity, forged over more than fifty years of unending production, has three clearly defined and well-marked moments. Yet I would also point out a fourth moment in her career, one which I consider to be a watershed in her production and also the precursor of a new discourse: the Boxes – Brazil; of Cockroaches and Ants. Made of the purest (black) humour and political and conceptual contestation.