Untitled (from 'Bichos' series)

Lygia Clark was one of the first in Latin America to participate, through her radical and innovative art, in the idea of the death of the art object. This trend was initiated by Duchamp and was highly in vogue in the artistic creations of the 1950s and 1960s. Clark created a series of "sensorial objects" that prompted the spectator to actively participate in the understanding and articulation of the "non-object". The spectator's body became the agent that the object intrinsically could produce, adding to its complex meaning the ideas that resulted from their personal perception. This active involvement from the viewer allowed him to further appreciate art's full meaning as an everyday activity.

In 1959, Clark made her first Bicho, an articulated object made out of aluminum that can be folded in and out into various positions, assuming multiplicity of forms. Along with Helio Oiticica, Clark belonged to the international vanguard in painting and sculpture, giving the first steps towards the further participation of the spectator in the artistic production and understanding of art.