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.
Architecture and design were both basic components of the CAYC’s interdisciplinary approach from the very beginning. In its early years, the center became affiliated with the Fundación de Investigación Interdisciplinaria (Foundation for Interdisciplinary Research), an organization that included a group of dissident professors from the Facultad de Arquitectura y Ciencias Exactas at the Universidad de Buenos Aires following the occupation of universities prompted by the coup d’état orchestrated by General Onganía in 1966. This connection to architecture left its mark on various aspects of the CAYC’s operations, such as the description of many of its initiatives as “projects;” the use of heliographic copies in its exhibitions; the center’s collaboration with the industrial sector in exhibitions and contests; and the presence of several artist-architects among the members of the Grupo de los Trece, including Clorindo Testa, Jacques Bedel, and Luis Fernando Benedit.
As explained in the text that includes the announcement (GT-635; doc. no. 1477204, GT-636; doc. no. 1477205), events such as Contemporánea 76 were conceived as opportunities for exhibition and exchange that would contribute to the evolution of disciplines that were regarded as having been ignored in Argentina in the 1970s. Exhibitions and competitions of this type frequently enjoyed the support of companies engaged in the production and marketing of industrial products. A case in point was the involvement of Noren Plast S.A. (a supplier of plastic materials) in the exhibition Escultura, follaje y ruidos in 1970 (GT-08, GT-17; doc. no. pending), or the competition organized by Aurora, the appliance company (GT-41, GT-42, GT-47; doc no. pending) in 1971. Glusberg, the director of the CAYC, had connections to the sector through his own company, Modulor S.A., which sold lighting fixtures.
The “non-competition invited guests” correspond to members of the jury or organizing committee, which is detailed in another newsletter (GT-794; doc. no. 1477457).
