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.
A new progressive cultural scene flourished after Salvador Allende’s election as president in 1970, making Chile an ideal place for an exchange of art projects with Argentina—from one side of the Andes to the other.
Since the 1970s Glusberg had been in touch with Nemesio Antúnez, the painter, printmaker, and founder of Taller 99, who was at that time the director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA) in Santiago, Chile, and was also an active promoter of contemporary art. Several of the CAYC’s exhibitions were offered to the MNBA. The offers aligned with some of the center’s core goals: to promote art from the Southern Cone on the world stage and to present the work being done in other countries to a Latin American audience.
The military coup (which led to a dictatorship that lasted seventeen years) led by General Augusto Pinochet against the popular and constitutionally elected government of Salvador Allende interrupted those plans for cooperation. A few days after the attack on the Chilean people, this newsletter invited artists, scientists, intellectuals, and professionals to a ceremony in honor of the neighboring country. There was a need to reflect on the cultural, scientific, and political consequences of that event. This initiative was an example of the center’s interest in coordinating theoretical thinking and social practice during the sociopolitical crisis at the time. The general uncertainty also affected the joint activities
