In 1968 the recently created CAYC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación) set out to become an international reference point that could position Argentina and Latin America to converse with contemporary art production trends. Jorge Glusberg, the founder of the Center, aimed to achieve this goal by creating an exhibition circuit that would renew Latin American art’s discourse based on what was considered “arte de sistemas,” a broad category that, among other expressions, included new technologies; print, photographic, and video documentation; body art; land art; and performance or conceptual art in its various forms.
Unlike the way in which the introduction of Argentine art on the international stage had been approached in the 1960s, the CAYC’s model was based on an “ideological regionalism” whose poetics would be broader in scope and would extend beyond Latin America to include developing countries and those with similar political views. Far from the folkloric categories that underpinned popular perceptions of Latin America, Glusberg’s “regionalism” was inspired by the experimental poetics that were emerging at that time, “(…) with an international language with which to express the true realities of Third World countries.”[1] Seen from this perspective, the subject matter was the specificity of the proposed regionalism.
With that idea in mind, the CAYC developed a circuit for the production and dissemination of the regional program through the continental and transatlantic circulation of exhibitions, interdisciplinary activities, and discussion forums; the promotion of initiatives in the Center’s newsletters (known as “GT” or “yellow pages”); and the founding of Ediciones del Tercer Mundo (Third World Publications), a cooperative created to print publications and produce audiovisual material. Also, in 1973, in the highly politicized climate that permeated the region, the EAE (Escuela de Altos Estudios) began to provide a platform for education and disciplinary exchange where ideologically compatible intellectuals could share their ideas.
The social conflicts that were roiling Argentina and Latin America in those years were expressed in a number of works that injected politics into what was called “systems art.” In 1972, the CAYC started producing events that took an increasingly political approach.
The traveling exhibition Hacia un perfil del arte latinoamericano (Towards a Profile of Latin American Art), originally presented in May 1972 at the III Coltejer Biennial in Medellín, Colombia, was an example of that process. At that event, “systems art” was programmatically redefined from a regionalist perspective. Its distinctive feature was the existence of dependence and underdevelopment—problems that were common to all Latin American countries. The works displayed were explicitly political and were conceived as models that would inspire the development of strategies with which to implement social change. This “underdeveloped,” “poor” aesthetic was consistent with material possibilities in Third World countries that were unable to compete with the developed world’s technological resources. This idea was reflected in the innovative approach to low cost exhibition, since all the works in Hacia un perfil... were heliographic prints, which were easy to copy, move, and install at each venue. The standard format also meant that production and exhibition requirements were the same for every artist.
To convey the idea behind the exhibition, Glusberg printed an excerpt from the introduction, which was later published in the catalogue, on one of the exhibition’s heliographic sheets:
There is no Latin American art as such, but the region’s individual countries do share a common problem in terms of their revolutionary situation. The idea for this exhibition occurred to me in response to the feelings about and desires for independence and liberation among artists in Argentina. The conflicts created by the unjust social relationships imposed on the Latin American people cannot be ignored in this facet of our cultural life…Our artists took note of the needs in their national realities and expressed regional responses that are consistent with the changes in all areas of human life being called for by those who are underprivileged today but who we think will be the potentially privileged classes of the future. [2]
The publication produced for this event included two texts: “Presentación de la muestra” (Introduction to the Exhibition) and “Arte e ideología” (Art and Ideology), a title that indicated the principles that would guide the new aesthetic. The clearly political term system was used in this essay for the first time. Taking an Althusserian approach, the text appealed to “the ideological nature of society” and rejected the notion of cultural dependence. It also insisted on the need to define “structures” and “production models,” with an option for direct reporting, in response to the situation in the Americas, “… creating a network of genuine communication in the matter of awareness” among artists in different countries. [3]
The Grupo de los Trece made their public debut at the Biennial in Medellín. The CAYC encouraged the group to start “a new Argentine avant-garde” that could impact the center from the region. Guests from other countries also joined the group since the goal of the exhibition was to develop a network of artists. The network expanded to Asia, Europe, and the Americas, creating a constellation that included prominent figures and important public and private institutions as well as local spaces established by artists in small communities. Participants included, from Argentina: Elda Cerrato, Lea Lublin, Marie Orensanz, Alejandro Puente, Osvaldo Romberg, and Jaime Davidovich; from the United States: Dick Higgins and the Guerrilla Art Action Group; from Colombia: Bernardo Salcedo and Antonio Caro; from Chile: Guillermo Deisler and Juan Downey; from Peru: Rafael Hastings; from Germany: Horst Tress; from France: Marcel Alocco; from Hungary: Agnes Denes; from Poland: Klaus Groh; and from Czechoslovakia: Jiri Valoch, among other artists.
Eastern Europe, which was isolated at the time, was one of the CAYC’s strategic, crucial partners in its early years. Glusberg established connections with artists, critics, and cultural promoters in the region, such as the Polish playwright Jerzy Grotowski, a pivotal figure in the founding of the Grupo de los Trece, and the Polish, Hungarian, and Czechoslovakian experimental groups with which many Latin American artists forged relationships through the Center.
In 1974 other exhibitions and gatherings began to contribute to these efforts to support the strategy of institutional promotion. The exhibition Arte de sistemas en Latinoamérica traveled around Europe from 1974 to 1976, and the Encuentros abiertos del video were organized in various cities in Asia, America, and Europe from 1974 to 1979. All these initiatives functioned as spaces that fostered exchange, openness, and promotion at a time of extreme political instability and cultural isolation in Latin America.
Translated by Tony Beckwith
NOTES
1. Jorge Glusberg, “Introducción a Arte de Sistemas en Latinoamérica,” in Art Systems in Latin America (London and Buenos Aires: ICA-CAYC 1974), n/p.
2. Jorge Glusberg, “Presentación de la muestra” (Introduction to the Exhibition), in Hacia un perfil del arte latinoamericano, Encuentro Internacional de Arte in Pamplona (Pamplona and Buenos Aires, 1972), n/p. The exhibition was originally presented at the Coltejer Biennial, in May 1972, but the exhibition catalogue was published the following month for the Encuentro Internacional de Arte in Pamplona.
3. Jorge Glusberg, “Arte e ideología” (Art and Ideology), in Hacia un perfil …, n/p.