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. In addition to the exhibitions, a program of different activities exposed attendees to the latest in scientific thinking. According to Glusberg, the coordination between theoretical thinking and artistic practice was an essential part of social change.
In keeping with its goal of positioning itself as a space for experimental work, especially for projects that sought to combine art, technology, and communication, the CAYC organized a variety of activities. The Center was the driving force behind the avant-garde as it sought to explore and understand the mass media.
Glusberg’s involvement in Open Circuits. International Conference on the Future of Television at MoMA in New York in January 1974, where the discussion focused on video, television, and new media in Latin America, was the nudge the CAYC needed to organize Encuentros Abiertos Internacionales de Video. The first three editions of this event had been organized in Europe (London, Paris, Ferrara), where video art was already an established practice, but the Fourth Encuentro took place in Buenos Aires in December 1975 (GT-595-596; doc. no. 1477286">1477286). The strategy was to connect Argentina—and, by extension, the rest of Latin America—to the latest ideas and high profile exponents of the medium, which had not yet attracted many practitioners in the Americas.
In addition to announcing the “Primer Coloquio Latinoamericano de la Comunicación” (GT-572; doc. no. 1478994, GT-575; doc. no. 1478996), this newsletter also mentions the visit of prominent international figures who will be taking part in exhibitions scheduled before or during the Encuentro (GT-561; doc. no. 1477265, GT-579; doc. no. 1477272, GT-595-596; doc. no. 1477286">1477286). The Coloquio had already been mentioned months earlier during the lecture “Perspectivas de la investigación en la comunicación en Latinoamérica” given by the Mexican communications expert Raúl Lomelí (GT-509; doc. no. 1478888).
