In the 1960s, after Lygia Clark’s early investigations of space in painting, she created her innovative series titled Critters (Bichos), geometric objects made of hinged metal planes that were manipulated by the viewer into countless possible shapes and treated as living organisms that only became alive through the spectator’s participation. Clark’s Bichos won the prize for the Best National Sculpture at the São Paulo Biennial in 1961.

Clark’s radical propositions of incorporating the viewer into the artwork became an essential agent for her creative process and placed her as a true pioneer in the Brazilian art scene. The objet d’art began to be less of an object and more of a mediator and a transmitter of experiences and sensations. In handling it, a viewer or a museum visitor can perceive its energy directly.