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.
Alfredo Portillos (1928–2017) started taking part in the CAYC’s activities in 1971 and joined the Grupo de los Trece the following year. Latin America was one of the dominant themes in his work. In fact, his main goal was to foreground “other cultures” on the continent through ritual and syncretic “actions” that included Christian symbols, popular myths, the presence of priests from different hegemonic religions, and the gestures and objects associated with a wide range of rites. In Espacio ecuménico (1977), the artist created a space in which ceremonies of all religions could take place as a way to promote greater understanding among mankind.
This newsletter includes El Grupo de los Trece. Bienal de San Pablo, the article written by Glusberg and published immediately after the Buenos Aires based group’s prizewinning presentation at the biennial in Brazil. The large, thematically consistent installation for which Glusberg acted as curator, critic, and artist included individual works whose aesthetic had long identified the CAYC, on this occasion under the title Signos en ecosistemas artificiales.
In the 800 square meters assigned to them on the second floor of the biennial’s pavilion (Parque do Ibirapuera), in the section devoted to Uncatalogued Art, the CAYC members’ works were installed as part of a group presentation. According to Glusberg’s semiotic approach, the distinction between “natural” and “artificial” did not apply in this case because, for man (the artist), all objects are signs. The critic sought to express the discursive-space concept in which each work functioned as a supportive component that contributed to the overall narrative.
For the first time, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations’ Grande Prêmio Itamaraty was awarded to a representative of Latin America. The presentation at the São Paulo Biennial recognized both the CAYC and the group for their submission and granted the CAYC a level of international prestige that far exceeded the acknowledgements it had received up to that point in time. In the months prior to the group’s joint participation in the XIV São Paulo Biennial, the CAYC organized solo exhibitions for some of the members of the Grupo de los Trece and promoted their works in its newsletters. (See GT-737 [doc. no. 1477389], GT-738 [doc. no. 1477390], GT-746 [doc. no. 1477396], GT-757 [doc. no. 1477397], GT-758 [doc. no. 1477398], GT-759 [doc. no. 1477399], GT-761 [doc. no. 1477419], GT-765 [doc. no. 1477432], GT-766 [doc. no. 1477433], GT-772 [doc. no. 1477435], GT-773 [doc. no. 1477436], GT-774-775 [doc. no. 1477437], GT-787 and GT-788 [doc. no. 1477450], GT-789 and 790 [doc. no. 1477452], GT-791-793 [doc. no. 1477454], GT-794-796 [doc. no. 1477457], GT-797-798 [doc. no. 1477460], GT-799 [doc. no. 1477462], and GT-800-801 [doc. no. 1477463].)
