Open Letter: DRAGONS
Rio, Berlin, and everywhere in between. Dear Hélio Oiticica Art Center,
dear people who make the body and the city living matter—
I write with the desire to build dragons.
Creatures born from the rest, from the leftovers, from the sparkle that time insists on erasing.
With the hands of those who collect what has been left behind, I want to create, together with other hands, bodies that burn, dance, and reinvent themselves.
Dragons are philosopher’s stones in motion.
They are born from the mixture of what has been lost and what still pulses.
From raw materials — paper, plastic, metal — magical bodies emerge, forged by the heat of collaboration.
The gold we seek is not metal, it is encounter.
It is the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary, of discard into desire, of dirt into symbol.
I propose an open residency: a space to breathe, invent, and sew worlds together.
I want to occupy Hélio Oiticica not as an isolated studio, but as a collective womb, an alchemical laboratory of transformation. Together with Pimpolios da Grande Rio, with its recyclable materials and carnival power, I want to bring community dragons to life—beings made of cardboard, plastic, fabric, memories, laughter, affection, and sweat.
Dragons that belong to no one, but belong to everyone.
Dragons that are born from trash and fly through imagination.
Dragons that do not burn cities, but ignite people.
During the process, I want to open the doors, invite anyone who wants to participate—children, neighbors, artists, curious people, passing bodies, observing gazes. Hold workshops, performances, small conversations that become movement.
And, in the end, transform the top floor of HO into a collective ritual—
a flight, a chorus, a gesture of celebration and reconstruction.
What I desire is public alchemy:
to transform weight into lightness, waste into relics, matter into spirit. Each dragon will be a communal philosopher’s stone—
the result of the fire of conviviality and the patience of the process.
That is why I am writing this letter — not only as a proposal,
but as an invitation,
as a spark,
as a promise of a fire that warms and does not destroy.
With affection and alchemy,
Lola Lustosa
2025
>Start 2026
DRAGÕES
Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro
Exhibition/Residency 5 January – 28 February 2026
Concept/Artworks by Lola Lustosa
Curator: Cesar Oiticia Filho
Partners: Escola Mirim Pimpolhos da Grande Rio e Projeto HO
Days of Process:
Last day:
DRAGÕES is a series of hybrid sculptural bodies created from discarded materials collected from samba schools in Rio de Janeiro. Costume fragments, scenic elements, wood, bamboo, and metal structures—materials that once belonged to collective celebrations—are reassembled into new mythological forms. These materials carry traces of collective labor, cultural memory, and festivity, and are reconfigured into sculptural bodies that exist between object and performance.
The project unfolded within the idea of a live gallery. During the residency at the Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, the studio functioned as an open space of continuous transformation. Visitors could enter the space and witness the sculptures being built, modified, and activated throughout the institution’s opening hours. Rather than presenting finished objects, the exhibition existed as an evolving environment where construction, experimentation, and encounter formed part of the artwork itself.
Within this context, the dragons operate as forms of live art. They exist between sculpture, costume, architecture, and choreography. Although they can stand as sculptural structures, the works become fully realized when activated by human bodies. Through collective movement, procession, and performance, the sculptures come alive and transform the surrounding space.
The dragons take the form of giant puppets, a scale that requires multiple bodies to move and activate the structures. At this dimension, the sculpture becomes a collective organism rather than an individual object. The oversized bodies draw from traditions of street celebration, carnival, and public procession, where monumental figures temporarily inhabit the city and introduce mythological presences into everyday urban life.
Material research plays a central role in the project. Many of the elements used in the sculptures originate from the workshops of samba schools, particularly from the Escola de Samba Mirim Pimpolhos da Grande Rio. These discarded fragments function as what could be understood as fossil art—material residues of past performances and collective festivities. When incorporated into the dragons, these fragments carry traces of previous celebrations and become part of new sculptural narratives.
Through the reconfiguration of these materials, DRAGÕES explores how sculpture can emerge from hybrid cultural contexts, where popular celebration, urban craftsmanship, contemporary art, and collective performance intersect. The work activates layers of cultural memory, transforming fragments of carnival and public ritual into living sculptural systems.
Through the intersection of live gallery, live art, and fossil art, DRAGÕES proposes sculpture as a living process. The dragons emerge as temporary mythologies—moving architectures where bodies, materials, and memories converge. Activated through collective participation, these structures reshape the relationship between sculpture, public space, and the imagination of the city.
Photos: Diana Sandes
Check here a nice article by the art historian Sabrina Kearney : Making Magic
