Cildo Meireles is no armchair activist. 

Cildo Meireles has had a front seat to the horrors in his country protesting strongly against the Brazilian military dictatorship from 1964-1985. In an effort to be free of censorship, Meireles removed everyday items from circulation (banknotes, Coca-Cola bottles) and left short messages on them. For his 1970 banknote project Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Banknote Project, Meireles stamped official Brazilian banknotes with questions that asked who killed Vlado Herzog, the Brazilian journalist who died by torture, “What happened to Amarildo?”, and “Why was Toninho from PT murdered?” Meireles is not one to mess around. He’s a strong opponent of political corruption, covering all things to do with the corrupt regimes. 

Meireles printed messages on Coca-Cola bottles and had them circulating through the public as though they were graffiti; phrases like “Yankees Go Home” could be read at your kitchen counter. In another event during the dictatorship, Meireles tied ten chickens to a pole and burnt them alive before a stunned audience. Although radical, and a fire hazard if there ever was one, the work was to critique the dictatorship for killing its opponents. This is activism through phrases before the lazy, haughty hashtag activism.

If there is a rock band of the art world, Cildo Meireles, Helio Oiticia, and Tunga are in it, being the foremost conceptual artists in Brazil. It took a trip to New York in the disco-era 70s for Meireles to meet and become buds with fellow countryman and conceptual artist Helio Oiticia. But Meireles was quickly back in Brazil, witnessing the dictatorship firsthand. Meireles worked with Bosco Renaud, an engraver who brought to life the authentic notes used in his Zero Dollar and Zero Real money projects. When you’re thinking of burning down your city from corrupt officials, bring your friends along.