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.
Donald Burgy (b. 1937) is a well-known figure in the field of Conceptual art. His works have been shown at important Conceptual exhibitions, such as Information (Museum of Modern Art, New York1970). He was involved in several events in Argentina—he showed his work at Arte de Sistemas at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires in July 1971; at Arte de Sistemas II at the CAYC; and had a two solo shows at the center in 1971 and 1973. He submitted new work for this traveling exhibition, La década del 70, organized by the CAYC. As Glusberg noted in the invitation (GT-500; doc. no. pending), “the idea is to show, in as many places as possible, what art is being created in this decade (…) relying on a low-cost medium and works that are not original and can be easily copied.”
Returning to the method used to organize Hacia un perfil del arte latinoamericano (1972) (GT- 129; doc. no. 1476310), Glusberg invited artists from all over the world to submit their works. Burgy’s submission, Composición de fruta (1976), asked viewers to reflect on the issue of hunger in Latin America and the world. Instructions were provided for other artists, galleries, and viewers, associating art with nature and encouraging reflection on what was really going on in the Southern Cone under dictatorships.
In line with the works created by Vicente Marotta (1928–1994), a member of the Grupo de los Trece, in which food is a constant theme—as in Más y mejores alimentos para el mundo (1971) or the art actions produced by Marta Minujín (b. 1943) Comunicando con tierra (1976) and Autobiografía (1976)—Burgy’s work expressed an institutional critique of art, presenting a harsh view of Latin American conditions, in this case symbolized by the fruits of the earth, and the role they play in the world’s economic system.
