Cildo Meireles (Brazil)
(b. Rio de Janeiro, 1948)

Zero Cruzeiro(1974-78)

Unlimited edition prints
7 x 15cm
Donated by Gabriela Salgado
UECLAA # 444

Cildo Meireles is a conceptual artist with an international reputation, who creates objects and installations that directly engage the viewer in a complete sensorial experience. Since the 1960s Meireles' work has also been politically and socially engaged, questioning the injustices of Brazil's military regime and the country's dependence on the global economy. Zero Cruzeiro is a faithful replica of a cruzeiro note (the currency at the time) that has no value and whose heroic historical figures have been replaced by the photograph of a Brazilian Indian and a patient from a psychiatric hospital. As well as a comment on hyperinflation and the devaluation of the cruzeiro, this work plays with traditional notions of the nature and 'value' of art and the marginalisation of Brazil in the international art world.