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.
The CAYC had always wanted to be a part of the international art and culture milieu. To celebrate the opening of their headquarters on Viamonte street, they organized an auction of works donated by artists that would attract foreign critics such as Jasia Reichardt, deputy director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in London; Charles Spencer, director of the Camden Art Centre, also in London; and critics and artists like Willoughby Sharp and Charles Harrison. This initiative launched a period of transnational exchanges that lasted for much of the 1970s.
After an initial exhibition overseas (From Figuration Art to Systems Art in Argentina, Camden Arts Centre, London February 1971), the CAYC hosted El arte como idea en Inglaterra, which consisted of works selected by Charles Harrison (1942–2009). Harrison was a well-known historian, curator, and member of the pioneering art group Art & Language. In 1968 the group started challenging the practice and criticism of modern art, encouraging artists to “dematerialize in art.” These ideas had already made the rounds in Argentina thanks to the critic Oscar Masotta (see: Happenings, ed. Jorge Álvarez, Buenos Aires: 1967). Artists increasingly rejected traditional supports (such as painting or sculpture, among others) and created conceptual pieces that emphasized process.
This matter received worldwide exposure thanks to a potpourri book whose original title filled the entire cover. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972 (1973), written by Lucy R. Lippard and John Chandler. The original essay was written in 1968, when Lippard happened to be in Argentina, where she got in touch with members of the Tucumán Arde (1968) movement, in Rosario and in Buenos Aires.
