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.
As part of the interdisciplinary approach it had embraced since its very early days, the CAYC encouraged the pursuit of experimental practices, appropriating various creative ideas that had emerged in Argentina during the 1960s, such as “art in the street.” The center incorporated these ideas into its philosophy, creating art events for the public. CAYC al aire libre consisted of a series of exhibitions that literally took art to the streets. The viewing public actively participated by interacting with the works and creating their own experiences.
The first exhibition in this series was Escultura, follaje y ruidos at the Plaza Rubén Darío, which ran from November 7 to 30, 1970, and included works by forty-six local artists and fourteen foreigners. The exhibition also included four concerts performed by Movimiento Música Más. (See GT-15 [doc. no. pending].) It was among the events organized to celebrate the Semana de Buenos Aires, and was also driven by the desire to get away from the museum and gallery circuit in order to reach a larger audience in the city’s streets. The event was conceived as a participatory and musical activity, far removed from technology and institutions (museums, galleries), which would foreground its spontaneous and ephemeral nature. The artists Edgardo Antonio Vigo and Carlos Ginzburg provided signage; Luis Fernando Benedit, Vicente Marotta, and Jorge Glusberg contributed playscapes for children; others presented musical works and participatory sculptures.
This newsletter announces the Nor-Glas Prize and provides a list of the Argentinean and Uruguayan members of the jury who would judge the event. A catalogue that was to have been published never actually materialized. With this exhibition, the CAYC expanded its sphere of action beyond technology; by interacting directly with members of the public, “art in the open air” contributed a key component to the concept of "arte de sistemas."
