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 a key role in this process. The exhibitions shone a light on these exchanges, in which overviews of trends or individual artists introduced the innovations of international contemporary art.
The 1970s ushered in a period of growing conflict and forceful challenges by the revolutionary movement. Under those circumstances, debates about the roles of art and the artist became increasingly urgent as politics became more radicalized and violence became more widespread.
Agustín Merello’s involvement in the CAYC began during the early days of the EAE (Escuela de Altos Estudios, GT-225; doc. no. 1478772). As a member of the research committee, he “presented the proposals for the field research to be conducted and organized the School’s pedagogical activities.” In this role, he presented seminars in which he promoted the model of “la prospectiva,” which he described as “a scientific preview of the future as a guide to action.” This in turn led to a call for entries from artists, writers, musicians, architects, designers, and other interested parties, inviting them to submit their works to Prospectiva, which was scheduled to open at the CAYC in July 1973.
The newsletter includes a list of rules and an invitation to a preparatory workshop. The Argentinean artist Marta Minujín subsequently expressed some of the ideas that came out of those gatherings in La academia del fracaso, the event that opened at the CAYC on September 26, 1975, which was jointly produced with Merello (GT- 524; doc. no. 1476844, GT-550; doc. no. 1477161, GT-552-553-554; doc. no. 1477163).
