Greco and Minujín

The Pendular Condition in the Early Days of Contemporary Argentine Art

Abstract

This text develops the pairing between Alberto Greco's Viaje de pie en metro de Sol a Lavapiés and Marta Minujín's La Destrucción, both from 1963. These actions marked a rejection of the commercialization of art and reflected experimental and critical stances toward the institutionalization of artistic practices. They can be better understood considering the “pendulum condition” of Latin American art, between international influences and local affirmations. Greco and Minujín not only dialogued with the hegemonic tendencies of conceptual and informalist art but also reinterpreted them and developed their own languages aligned with the political, cultural, and social issues of the global South. Through bibliographic dialogues, documentary analysis, description and comparison between the works and their production processes, it is concluded that these actions were planned, in their singularities and convergences, and configured fundamental milestones for the understanding of contemporary Argentine art, challenged narratives centered on the geopolitical north and expanded the horizons of the historiography of Latin American art.