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.
The CAYC’s call for submissions to El grabado y la realidad nacional sought to explore strategies for the democratization of art in terms of how works and artists were selected and how works were shown in exhibition spaces. According to this newsletter, artists were asked to submit works that were “created using techniques that would allow them to be copied multiple times by mechanical means.” Works were selected by a jury made up of members of the Grupo de los Trece and shown at the CAYC. Visitors to Arte de Sistemas II could vote for works that were then used to generate multiple copies in order to “reach segments of the population that lack the financial resources to buy works of art.” Visitors voted with tickets they placed in urns at the three venues (GT-165; doc. no. 1477989). This project was the center’s way to “react against art in service to the dominant ideology that is run by the art dealers and their commercial circuit.”
The exhibition Arte de Sistemas II (Buenos Aires, September 1972) was presented at three different venues: Arte de Sistemas Internacional (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires), Arte de Sistemas Argentina (Centro de Arte y Comunicación), and CAYC al Aire Libre. Arte e Ideología (Plaza Roberto Arlt), and included experimental music performances.
The Grupo de los Trece was the art group that represented the CAYC. It was started in late 1971 and made its official debut in May of the following year at the III Bienal de Arte Coltejer in Colombia (GT-116; doc. no. 1476404). The members of the original group were Jacques Bedel and Luis (Fernando) Benedit (architects), Gregorio Dujovny, Carlos Ginzburg, Víctor Grippo, Jorge González Mir, Jorge Glusberg, Vicente Marotta, Luis Pazos, Alberto Pellegrino, Alfredo Portillos, Juan Carlos Romero, and Julio Teich. Over time, some members moved on, and newcomers joined the ranks of the group.
