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 a key role in this process. The exhibitions shone a light on these exchanges, in which overviews of trends or individual artists introduced the innovations of international contemporary art and made Argentine and Latin American artists better known on the global scene and made Argentine and Latin American artists better known on the global scene.
In November 1971, as a result of their encounter with the Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999), the founder of what was called “poor theater,” members of the CAYC met to discuss the goals and organization of the Grupo de los Trece (Group of Thirteen), to include Jacques Bedel, Luis Fernando Benedit, Gregorio Dujovny, Carlos Ginzburg, Víctor Grippo, Jorge González Mir, Vicente Marotta, Luis Pazos, Alberto Pellegrini, Alfredo Portillos, Juan Carlos Romero, Julio Teich, and Jorge Glusberg. The recently formed group thus paid tribute to the small theater-laboratory in Opole where Grotowski developed his theory about the dramatic arts. The goal of the Theatre of 13 Rows was to encourage—in a socialist country like Poland—creative activities produced with scant (“poor”) resources, inspired by an interdisciplinary focus on the idea of freedom as the ultimate resource for the creative act.
In the invitation letter sent to future members of the group, Glusberg described the project as “a work and shock group” that, rather than “working independently, closed to the public, in an aggressively sectarian manner,” was conceived “as a discussion group engaged in communal conversations about individual and group projects, thinking about the future and turning thought into action.” (Archivo Juan Carlos Romero) This collaborative approach—in which everyone did their own thing while sharing common goals—was intended as a model with which to encourage changes in society. Those objectives were expressed in the article announcing the exhibition that was organized to celebrate the first anniversary of the group’s activities. The catalogue, entitled El grupo de los trece en arte de sistemas, highlights the group’s recent collaboration with David Cooper (1931–1986), the theorist of the “anti-psychiatry” movement, who was known for his opposition to traditional psychiatric methods because they replicate the same kind of dominant relationships that are so prevalent in contemporary society. The Grupo de los Trece’s artistic approach combined political ideas with corporate team dynamics—from which it borrowed the “brainstorming” technique—and psycho-dramatic group therapy procedures.
A forerunner in the international field of political action in art was the Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG), started in 1969 by the New York artists Jon Hendricks and Jean Toche. This group staged events in public spaces that combined performance and theater in an attempt to reach viewers beyond the confines of the art community. The GAAG also presented various versions of the exhibitions Arte de Sistemas and Hacia un perfil del Arte Lationamericano, organized by the CAYC.
