In the design ¿Y por qué no?, the artist Antonieta Sosa describes the action planned in detail. As she states it, this work consists of placing wine glasses on different parts of her body so that they will drop and break. Added to the sound of the breaking glasses are the sounds of a live orchestra that plays music on “glass instruments.” Prior to the action with the artist’s body, the plan is for the experience to be accompanied by slides that reproduce glass objects and to present different sequences in a film record created by the filmmaker Carlos Castillo. These include: (a) broken glass bottles atop the walls of Caracas houses; (b) the audience throwing wine glasses into a square structure built of blocks that pertains to the action proposed by Sosa, Primera y cuarta fase de la situación titulada CASA, executed by the artist at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas during the 1st Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales in 1981; (c) individuals hurling glass objects on the floor. The final sequence (d) documents a person [Javier Manchal] lying down on the broken glass.

This document, which describes the design Y por qué no? by the artist and professor Antonieta Sosa (b. 1940), is a key text in the history of non-object art in Venezuela. This is a project by an artist who is a pioneer in the genre, contributing to defining the “language of action” in Venezuela.

Y por qué no? was inspired by Joseph Cornell and represents an awareness of the close ties between an experience and public participation in it. It also includes collaboration with other media of representation (music, dance, film and photography). In this “situation,” other artists cooperated: the filmmaker Carlos Castillo, who recorded the experience in super 8 format; the musician Ricardo Turel, who served as conductor of the “orchestra" of glass instruments (using his own score) during the performance; the artist Alfred Wenemoser, who played one of the instruments; as well as some dancers and intellectuals from the 1980s art world.

Sosa’s “action” included planning Actions in front of the Plaza, an event held in Caracas under the auspices of FUNDARTE, coordinated by Marco Antonio Ettedgui, in 1981. It took place in the exhibition room of the Federal District government offices (Caracas) in August that year. The original text of the proposal, written in first and third persons, was published in Acciones frente a la Plaza. Reseñas y documentos de siete eventos para una nueva lógica del arte venezolano (Caracas: FUNDARTE, 1995), compiled by Maria Elena Ramos. There was an information sheet provided at the event: “Y por qué no? una 'situación' creada por Antonieta Sosa con vidrios y más vidrios” (Caracas: FUNDARTE, 1981).

Texts in the catalogue for the performance art event Cas(A)nto (Caracas: Museo de Bellas Artes, 2000) can be seen in the ICAA digital archive: “Antonieta Sosa: Antropometrías de la casa” by Luis Enrique Pérez Oramas (doc. No. 1157705)]; [two] essays by the curator Carmen Hernández, “Los múltiples tránsitos de Cas(A)nto” (doc. No. 1157721) and “El espacio y el tiempo en cas(a)nto” de Antonieta Sosa (doc. No. 1157689). In addition, Hernández also wrote the study “Antonieta Sosa: La medida de lo personal,” referring to the group exhibition Desde el cuerpo: alegorías de lo femenino (doc. No. 1155378) as well as a text that describes another action “Del cuerpo al vacío: Una situación de Antonieta Sosa” (doc. No. 865819).