Tucumán Arde, the best-known group event ever produced by the avant-garde of both Buenos Aires and Rosario, took place in 1968, when radical political and artistic unrest came to a head in various parts of the world. The event involved a complex process of research, counter information, and a massive public awareness campaign.
As part of the research process, a significant number of artists (mainly from Rosario) traveled to the Province of Tucumán where—with the help of union members, journalists, and other supporters—they worked secretly to document the social conditions at the sugar mills (that had been closed), schools, hospitals, etc. The objective was to expose the truth about the official Government campaign concerning the so-called Operativo Tucumán [Tucumán Operation], one of the ten points of the emergency program launched by the Argentine labor union CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo). The artists involved resorted to a variety of tactics, such as recordings, photographs, and film. To avoid the chance that the documentation might fall into the hands of the security forces in the region, it was sent every day to the city of Rosario, where a group of supporters processed the material that had been collected.