Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

496
following (Marta Traba for example) and wrote many books, although I cannot say that he left
a systemic thought as a legacy (I would have to reread his stuff from that angle). His role
through the Institute was to make Buenos Aires a center for cutting edge modernism and
avant-garde art, and he succeeded. I am writing from what I remember, so this is not real
history, but the first Lygia Clark, Tapies and Nevelson among other things, I saw because of
Romero Brest’s work in Di Tella. However, his cultural role was not a clear one from a political
point of view and got mixed reactions from radical young artists. In part he was seen as providing
needed primary sources of information. In part he was seen as serving as a conduit for
cultural colonization. He always sponsored new and young artists, he promoted the “Otra
Figuración” group (Noé, Deira, De la Vega and Macció) in 1961 (the forerunners of neoexpressionism),
and he was sympathetic to anything new and liable of gathering attention.
One cannot say that he or the Institute emphasized conceptualist expressions for any programmatic
reason. People like Greco, Ferrari, Carreira, Bony, Jacoby, Plate, Lamelas and many
others, all were working in that direction and it was only natural that the Di Tella would
exhibit them.
The Di Tella had a yearly experimental exhibit. In 1968 Romero Brest’s ideas about the
exhibit conflicted with the projects presented by some of the artists and he asked them to revise
their presentations. Some did, some refused, some protested publicly with letters (Pablo Suárez
proclaimed his letter a piece of art). One of the revisions was by Roberto Plate, whose piece
was the building of two simulated bathrooms where people started writing graffiti, mostly
political, which led the regime to seal the rooms. This led all the other artists to remove their
works as well. “Tucumán Arde” took place several months after that and included many of the
artists that had been in the show. At this point, the Di Tella (and Romero Brest) became the
symbol for the opposite of what “Tucumán Arde” stood for. When I visited in 1969, I was not
fully aware of the state of affairs. I had known Romero Brest for nearly ten years (he had seen
my beginnings as an artist, expressionist wood cuts and had told me that they were OK, but
that I still needed to suffer to achieve any quality) and, during what was a social visit, he invited
us to participate in the “Experiencias 1969” exhibition. I accepted and then, finding out more
about what was going on and unable to withdraw, decided to make a point by “titling” the
exhibition “Contemporary Colonial Art.”
B.S.: I know that the Di Tella Institute funded exchange between Argentinean and New
York art circles. How did that impact the ways in which conceptualism emerged? For example,
Lucy Lippard has referred repeatedly to being politicized by her visit to Rosario and her meeting
with the Tucumán Arde group. Since you were working both in New York and South