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.
This newsletter announces a presentation of Escrito con un nictógrafo, the first book of poems by the poet and writer Arturo Carrera (b. 1948). Over the course of his career his art production, which was always experimental, he leaned toward contemporary painting in projects that included works, performances, publications, and exhibitions. In this article, Carrera used a nyctograph, a device invented by Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), that allowed him to write in the dark. It was a rectangular metal plate with sixteen square holes with which he could write the alphabet. He could therefore jot down any ideas he might have while drifting off to asleep before they vanished, without having to turn on the light. In Carrera’s version, his small notes were written in white ink on black pages.
During the presentation, the poet Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) read, in the dark, the poem “Escrito con un nictógrafo,” one of the poems in the homonymous book, in a performance that is now the only existing recording of her voice. She committed suicide a few months later. The presentation as a whole was very much in line with the CAYC’s experimental goals as it sought to position itself as an avant-garde interdisciplinary promoter.
