In this text, the work is presented as a joint production of the Grupo de Artistas Argentinos de Vanguardia (this is the only document in which they use that exact name) and the labor union. The basis of their denunciation of the government policy is outlined in this text that combines quantitative data (for example: “70,000 unemployed”) and poetic overtones (“Tucumán grita”) [Tucumán shouts]. It compels the reader to become conscious of the “drama that clouds our homeland”—the ultimate goal of the Tucumán Arde exhibition.

Tucumán Arde [Tucumán Is Burning] is the most famous collective production of emerging vanguard art in Argentina, both in Buenos Aires and Rosario, and it took place at the turning point of the artists’ political and artistic radicalization in 1968. Its design implied a complex process of research and counter-information as well as a mass-media campaign. Given the fact that they were an integral part of the investigation, many artists (mostly from Rosario) traveled to Tucumán for a second time in October 1968. It was in that province that, with the support of trade-union members, journalists, and other collaborators, the artists developed an underground registry of work pertaining to the social situation of sugar mills (closed by then), schools, hospitals, and so forth, seeking information that would evidence the official campaign’s deception respecting the so-called Operativo Tucumán. A variety of media was used, including recordings, photographs, and films. In order to prevent the obtained information from falling into the hands of law enforcement agents, the artists sent the results to the city of Rosario on a daily basis, where a group of collaborators would process them. This document is a brief mimeographed declaration that was handed out to the public that attended the Tucumán Arde exhibition in Rosario (it was also likely handed out in Buenos Aires). The exhibition took place during fifteen days in an old house belonging to the CGT (Confederación General del Trabajo de los Argentinos), in Rosario. Even though public gatherings were forbidden by the dictatorship, an estimated three thousand people attended the exhibition. The artists signed Tucumán Arde documents using various names. Since 1966, the Rosario group had maintained the denomination “Grupo de Arte de Vanguardia de Rosario”; after they merged with the artists from Buenos Aires, who did not have a collective name, they used various names, including Grupo de Artistas de Vanguardia, Grupo de Artistas Argentinos de Vanguardia, Comisión de Artistas de la CGT de los Argentinos, and even Comité Coordinador para la Imaginación Revolucionaria. Some documents are signed with one of these generic names; others were not signed at all; and some of them contain a large list of first names.