“CC4 Nocagions” (1973) by Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida at the Liquidrom, Berlin

Following the world premiere of Helio Oiticica, a sprawling documentary of the influential Brazilian artist’s approach to life, love and work composed of extremely rare archival video and audio, and directed by his nephew Cesar Oiticica Filho at the Berlinale‘s sumptuous Delphi cinema, Oiticica’s long-time collaborator Neville Almeida announced that as part of the film festival’s Forum Expanded program Berlin’s spa/nightclub, the Liquidrom shall stage a recreation of their seminal Cosmococa installations for one night only. Titled CC4 Nocagions, the installation is part of a series of experimental spaces where the audience are invited to watch, listen and play within rooms decorated with projections of record sleeves ‘painted’ with lines of cocaine while their songs play at full blast. CC4 Nocagions presented cocaine inflected record covers of John Cage’s Notations album while the music subtly echoed underwater to a rapt, and wet Berlin crowd. The film went on to pick up two prizes at the Berlinale; the Cagliari Film Prize and the Forum prize from the Fipresci Jury. Text Xerxes Cook and photo Maxime Ballesteros