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. In addition to the exhibitions, a program of different activities provided viewers with a greater chance of seeing the latest innovations in art and scientific thought. According to Glusberg, the coordination between theoretical thinking and artistic practice was a key factor in the achievement of social change.
Technology, architecture, design, industry, and the hard (“exact”) sciences, as well as social and behavioral sciences were fundamental specializations in the CAYC’s interdisciplinary project and had been since its inception. In its early years the center organized the Jornadas Intensivas de Discusión, which addressed a number of problems that sought to articulate art with scientific thought as a way to build a new social reality.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s a discussion took place in Buenos Aires about the artistic merit of photographic images and the potential for experimentation that the new medium offered. This newsletter, from 1971, announces the first meeting devoted to art and photography, which took place just before the opening of Fotografía inesperada (ICA, 1971 GT-22; doc. no. pending), a promotional exhibition in Argentina that focused on the artistic and innovative uses of photography at the time.
Miguel Ángel Otero (b. 1945) introduced Argentina to a semiotic approach to interpreting photography. He participated in this discussion forum, which prompted a conversation about the scope and future of photography. It was also his artistic discipline. The connection between Otero and the CAYC is based on a mutual interest in photography, especially the kind that reflects the sociopolitical reality in a country so deeply affected by military rule. With this Jornada de Discusión, the CAYC tries to keep its readers informed and stimulate different creative possibilities for using photography in art.
