CAYC: Art Systems as an institutional strategy for a regional identity

• In Event: Producciones visuales y críticas durante el tránsito de las dictaduras a las democracias en Argentina y Brasil

Abstract

There is no doubt that during seventies, many Latin American artists used the idea of ideology, politics or violence to achieve one of the main goals of their works. But what is unusual is to find an institution that gave space for artists to develop some of these activities. In 1969, Jorge Glusberg created the CAYC (Centro de Arte y Comunicación/ Center of Art and Communication. Influenced by the debates of structuralism, during the early years the institution showed special interest in interdisciplinary practices, particularly those related to the ideas sketched out by Jack Burnham which he named System Art. Thus, in various exhibitions Glusberg brought together artists who created experiences linked to conceptualism, art and technology, media art or performance, among others.
Gradually, against a context of increasing social violence in Argentina, Glusberg started conceiving of a political use for System Art, with the idea of promoting it as a new Latin American aesthetic category.
Departing from diverse institutional strategies of promotion and insertion in international circuits, one of Glusberg’s aims was to create an international network of artists and institutions in order to work with independency from the almost inexistent official cultural politics in Argentina.
This paper seeks to show both the ways in which many of the works presented in CAYC’s exhibitions functioned in relation to this idea of System Art and how the political approach to the term was strategically used by Glusberg with diverse objectives.

Author

• Mariana Marchesi