This final issue of Nervo Óptico shows a work by the Argentinean artist Liliana Porter (b. 1941), who was based in New York City. There, in the mid-1960s, she founded the New York Graphic Workshop (NYGW), along with the artists Luis Camnitzer and José Guillermo Castillo. At the time she proposed this work for publication in Porto Alegre, the artist was working as an etching instructor at the Studio Camnitzer-Porter in Lucca (Italy), which she cofounded with Camnitzer. In recent years, Porter has carried on her work, now in upstate New York, exhibiting in a great variety of media—though she often goes back to photography and video.
Under the epigraph “Publication open to the dissemination of new visual poetics,” Nervo Óptico was published monthly in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul) for a total of 13 issues (from April 1977 to September 1978). The journal was created by a group of artists who identified themselves with the journal’s initials, N.O. The participants in Nervo Óptico included Vera Chaves Barcellos (b. 1938), Carlos Asp (b. 1949), Carlos Pasquetti (b. 1948), Clovis Dariano (b. 1950), Jesús Escobar (b. 1956), Flávio Pons (b. 1947), Mara Alvares (b. 1948), Romanita Martins (b. 1940) and Telmo Lanes (b. 1955). The content of Nervo Óptico was basically visual, reproducing works by the group or invited artists, almost all including the language of photography, whether as artwork in itself or as photographic documentation of performances. The publication created a space for debate about contemporary art events far from the values that prevailed in the art market and the demand for collectible objects. Nervo Óptico focused on conceptual art, thus creating its own instrument of legitimation.
All 13 issues of the Porto Alegre publication Nervo Óptico are available in the ICAA digital archive:see “[Em manifestaçao realizada em dezembro último...]” by the Grupo N.O. [doc. no. 1110913]; and “Manifesto” [doc. no. 1110690]. The second issue of this journal presented work by Mara Álvares [doc. no. 1110914]; the third issue, work by Carlos Asp [doc. no. 1110915]; the fourth, work by Carlos Pasquetti [doc. no. 1110916]; the fifth issue, work by Telmo Lanes [doc. no. 1110917]; the sixth issue, work by Clovis Dariano [doc. no. 1110918]; the seventh issue, work by Vera Chaves Barcellos [doc. no. 1110919]; the eighth issue represented an N.O. group exhibition held at the Galeria Eucatexpo [doc. no. 1110920]; the ninth issue included an artist who was not a group member, Maria Tomaselli [doc. no. 1110921]; the tenth issue was a flyer in the journal Ephemera published in the Netherlands [doc. no. 1110922]; the eleventh issue included On Ice, a performance presented in Amsterdam [doc. no. 1110923]; and issue #12, was a photographic work jointly created by Lanes and Dariano [doc. no. 1110924].
Nervo Óptico ceased publication by unanimous decision of the collective after this thirteenth issue. This was related by the artists interviewed by Ana Maria Albani de Carvalho for her Masters dissertation at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Instituto de Artes, 1994). The time demands of the entire process (editing, distribution and promotion) were getting in the way of the members’ other artwork.
