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. As part of the interdisciplinary approach it had always encouraged, the CAYC promoted experimental practices, appropriating a variety of examples of Argentine art from the 1960s and developing them as part of its poetics.
This newsletter announces a production of Sensaciones (Sensations), directed by Norberto Lavecchia and performed by the experimental theater dance group Dimensión 7. Lavecchia took photographs of the theater and dance performances at venues such as the Centro Cultural San Martín in Buenos Aires after its debut during the first year of the series organized at the CAYC (GT-301; doc. no. doc. no. 1478985). The Ciclo de Investigaciones Teatrales 73–74 began with the group Nosotros Laboratorio de Teatro performing their Trabajo n° 5 (Work n° 5) (GT-297; doc. no. 1478830, GT-321; doc. no. 1478841). Other events in the series included the Grupo de Teatro del Encuentro’s presentation of Ceremonia del segundo Nacimiento (Ceremony of the Second Birth) (GT-302; doc. no. 1478986, GT-317; doc. no. 1478987), the Gente group performing an acting exercise (GT-308; doc. no. 1478837), and Agujas de coser (Sewing Needles), directed by Osvaldo Moro (GT-418; doc. no. 1478895).
Participating groups shared a common aesthetic approach, which was based on the interaction between actors and audience and a minimal reliance on props. This style was inspired by Jerzy Grotowski (1933–1999) and his “poor theater” concept—using only the actors’ bodies and voices on an “empty” stage with no scenery. Teatro Pobre claimed a direct link to performance art, one of the experimental movements that Glusberg promoted in the local art scene.
Grotowski’s ideas also influenced the work of the Grupo de los Trece, a visual artists’ collective organized at the CAYC. The original members of the group (the architects Jacques Bedel and 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 Glusberg) met the Polish theater director when he came to Buenos Aires in November 1971 (see the ICAA Digital Archive [GT-94; doc. no. 1478761]).
