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. The exhibitions shone a light on these exchanges, in which overviews of trends or individual artists provided an introduction to the innovations of international contemporary art and made Argentine and Latin American artists better known on the global scene.
The first version of Arte en cambio was an exhibition of works by the Grupo de los Trece presented at the CAYC’s premises in May 1973 (GT-233; doc. no. 1476435, GT-239; doc. no. 1476434). On that occasion Horacio Zabala was officially confirmed as a member of the group that came to represent the CAYC. He proposed the title of the exhibition, thinking in terms of a broad interpretation of freedom, something that was in short supply during that period of successive coups and military authoritarianism. Zabala was referring to every artist’s freedom to change his work’s approach rather than remain bound to repeat what had already been done or to keep repeating himself. (Interview with the author.)
In this second version, organized in 1976, the idea was expanded—in addition to the Grupo de los Trece, this edition would include a larger selection of artists (GT-618; doc. no. 1477194), some of whom were regular collaborators in the CAYC’s activities. The recycling of the title reflects Glusberg’s decision to move away from the category of Arte de sistemas that, after that year, was no longer used in connection with the center’s projects. This was due, in part, to the censorship and repression that was expected to be imposed (after March 24 of that year) by the recently installed military dictatorship. The social and political instability in Argentina lasted for almost a decade, making it impossible to produce any art that was explicitly critical of the situation. By contrast, political content had been a major part of everything the CAYC had done since 1972. On the other hand, Arte en cambio II was an acknowledgement of an international art scene in which conceptualism was no longer of prime importance, giving way to new trends such as those known as “nt.”
This newsletter provides a genealogy that connects several milestones in Argentinean art from the late 1960s that were associated with institutional criticism, political protest, media art and information art, and the use of technology and new materials. According to this view, the founding of the Grupo de los Trece, both during its time as part of the CAYC and in its later international period, was of fundamental importance.
The newsletter considers the possibility of a Latin American avant-garde based on how art from those countries has been excluded by the centers of hegemonic power. Due to the circumstances mentioned above, the only option is a more tempered discourse that is limited to the cultural sphere; written works from earlier years underscored the revolutionary potential of art. The works that the CAYC promotes, however, still endorse the idea of art as a model for social change.
