Cildo Campos Meirelles (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1948). Multimedia artist. Begins his studies in art in 1963, at the Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal, in Brasília, guided by the Peruvian ceramist and painter Barrenechea (1921). He began to make drawings inspired by African masks and sculptures. In 1967, he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied for two months at the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes (Enba). During this period, he created the series Espaços Virtuais: Cantos, with 44 projects, in which he explores issues of space, further developed in the works Volumes Virtuais e Ocupações (both from 1968-1969). He is one of the founders of the Experimental Unit of the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro (MAM/RJ), in 1969, where he teaches until 1970. The political character of his work is revealed in works such as Tiradentes - Totem-monumento ao Preso Político (1970), Inserções em Circuitos Ideológicos: Projeto Coca-cola (1970) and Quem Matou Herzog? (1970). The following year, he traveled to New York, where he worked on the installation Eureka/Blindhotland, the LP Sal sem Carne (recorded in 1975) and the series Inserções em Circuitos Antropológicos. After his return to Brazil, in 1973, he began to create sets and costumes for theater and cinema, and in 1975 he became one of the directors of the art magazine Malasartes. He developed a series of works inspired by paper money, such as Zero Cruzeiro and Zero Centavo (both 1974-1978) and Zero Dólar (1978-1994). In some works, he explores questions about units of measurement of space or time, as in Pão de Metros (1983) or Fontes (1992). In 2000, Cosac & Naify published the book Cildo Meireles, originally published in London in 1999 by Phaidon Press Limited. He has participated in the Biennials of Venice, 1976; Paris, 1977; São Paulo, 1981, 1989, and 2010; Sydney, 1992; Istanbul, 2003; Liverpool, 2004; Medellin, 2007; and Mercosul, 1997 and 2007; as well as the Kassel Documenta, 1992 and 2002. He has had retrospectives of his work at the IVAM Centre del Carme, Valencia, 1995; at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, 1999; at the Tate Modern, London, 2008; and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2009. In 2008 he receives the Premio Velázquez de las Artes Plásticas, awarded by the Ministry of Culture of Spain. In 2009, the feature film Cildo, about his work, was released, directed by Gustavo Moura.
CILDO Meireles. In: ENCICLOPÉDIA Itaú Cultural de Arte e Cultura Brasileiras. São Paulo: Itaú Cultural, 2021. Available at: <http://enciclopedia.itaucultural.org.br/pessoa10593/cildo-meireles>. Accessed on: June 16, 2021. Encyclopedia entry. ISBN: 978-85-7979-060-7