Ever since it was founded, the CAYC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación), helmed by the cultural promoter, artist, and businessman Jorge Glusberg, was intended as an interdisciplinary space where an experimental art movement could flourish. The establishment of collaborative networks connecting local and international artists and critics played an important role in this process. The exhibitions shone a light on these exchanges, in which overviews of trends or individual artists provided an introduction to the innovations of international contemporary art and made Argentine and Latin American artists better known on the global scene.
Considered one of the pioneers in the fields of media art and Conceptual art in Spain, Antoni Muntadas (b. 1942) has had a prolific career working on projects that express an indispensable critical reflection on key issues in the configuration of the contemporary experience. In his works, which are always characterized by a clearly discernible process and frequently appeal directly to viewer participation, Muntadas employs multiple supports, languages, and discursive strategies. Among them, he includes interventions in public spaces, videos, and photography, as well as printed publications and multidisciplinary and collaborative research projects.
In November 1975, Muntadas was invited to present his first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires at the CAYC, which included videos and Acción/situación: Hoy (1975–76). The latter was a work based on a trip he took through Latin America, during which he filmed scenes in each of the cities where his intervention took place (Buenos Aires, Caracas, São Paulo, and Mexico City). In the early 1970s, Muntadas worked on a number of projects that explored sensory limits, in which he reflected on the tensions that exist between public and private realms. Acción/situación: Hoy split the exhibition space into two parts: Muntadas appeared on one side of the room with the sound of his breathing amplified and a square of white light projected onto his chest (representing the individual). On the other side of the room were copies of all the newspapers, legal and illegal, that were published in Buenos Aires at that highly charged moment (illustrating the public).
