Cildo Meireles was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1948. He is a key figure of the Conceptual Art movement in Brazil. The production of viewer-oriented projects by Neo-concrete movement artists such as Helio Oiticica, Lygia Pape and Lygia Clark influenced his work and a whole generation of young artists´s emerging in the 1960s and 1970s. This group consistently produced politically and socially engaged works as a response to the oppressive military regime taking over from the early 1940s to the mid 1980s. He works across multiple mediums, being most recognised for the use of basic materials and commonplace objects. Insertions into Ideological Circuits: Coca-Cola Project (1970) is an iconic work that explores the notion of circulation of information. In this work Meireles modified Coca-Cola bottles printing critical political statements and returned them to the consumer network. Other insertions were produced in newspapers and on banknotes. Meireles began producing participatory environments in the early 1980´s, in which he is well recognised for the maze of broken glass ground entitled Through (1983–9), and the impressive installation composed of bones, gold coins and communion wafers commemorating the 17th Century Jesuit mission settlements in Southern Cone entitled Mission/Missions (1987). Tate Modern held a comprehensive retrospective of his work in 2008-2009.  His works have been acquired by MoMa, Tate Modern and CIFO among others. Meireles lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.