Torcuato di Tella Institute
Encyclopedia
The Torcuato di Tella Institute is a non-profit foundation organized for the promotion of Argentine culture.
. Funding for the project, organized by his sons, Torcuato and Guido di Tella
, was raised using the United States model of corporate financing, as well as by the donation of 10 % of the Siam di Tella
corporation's public stock. Its obective was initially limited to an arts program revolving primarily around the display of the di Tella family's private collections, which prominently included works by Henry Moore
, Pablo Picasso
, Amedeo Modigliani
and Jackson Pollock
.
The board of the foundation consisted of family members, though the institute was directed by a board that included academics and intellectuals from outside the family. Guido di Tella would serve as president, and the post of director of the institute was offered to Enrique Oteiza, whose family were leading Pampas-area landowners. The foundation also received funding in the form of grants from the Ford
and Rockefeller Foundation
s, after which the modest initiative expanded into theater and music, and grew to become the most significant cultural institution in Buenos Aires of the 1960s.
The institute continued to influence prevailing trends in the history of Argentine culture, however, and it adopted and advanced a modernist trend in various artistic disciplines. Its audiovisual center, established in 1960, and directed by Roberto Villanueva, premiered with a play, El Desatino (The Folly). The production's scenery backdrops were projected through slides, and introduced audiences to Nacha Guevara
and Les Luthiers
. This format would be promoted in subsequent years for its ability to broadcast material through compact and portable media in a way that would stimulate a network of local groups active in the cultural field.
Following its establishment, the di Tella art collection was transferred to the foundation, and Jorge Romero Brest
hosted a free show at the National Museum of Fine Arts
, which the leading local art critic directed. The activities were transferred to a small office in the Museum of Fine Arts in August 1960, and this was followed by an annual award for national and international artists, many of which sold their works to the di Tella collection. As part of the awards program, the winners were awarded scholarships covering study abroad and an exhibition of works in a North American or European gallery. Growing local interest in Latin American art
was accompanied by an initiative to show the di Tella collection across the Argentine hinterland, for which a minibus was purchased in 1963; the experiment, however, ended the following year, when the vehicle crashed in a rural La Rioja
road.
An initiative by Guido di Tella led to the institute's relocation into a modern, newly-completed Florida Street
building in August 1963. The offices were rented by SIAM di Tella at the northern end of Florida Street, near Plaza San Martín
, a busy pedestrian intersection in the upscale Retiro
district that could attract larger audiences. The building was refurbished with the addition of three stage theatres, and interiors designed to be inviting, with a floor-to-ceiling glass panel façade featuring publicity photos taken by Humberto Rivas, and a large lobby. The modern, air-conditioned building was propitious for exhibits and artistic events year-round. Its café, like the gallery, was staffed by attendants who wore no uniforms, and allowed patrons to smoke and take photographs at their leisure.
Founded by classical
composer Alberto Ginastera
, CLAEM (the Latin American Center for Advanced Musical Studies) was made part of the institute in 1962, yielding numerous productions of dodecaphonic, electronic
, and acoustic music
; CLAEM attracted prominent international guest lecturers such as Aaron Copland
, Luigi Nono
, and Iannis Xenakis
. A visual arts center (CAV) was also inaugurated at the new address. Directed by Romero Brest, CAV became the leading Buenos Aires center for the display and promotion for avant-garde
creations. CAV introduced art patrons to sculptors Juan Carlos Distéfano, Julio Le Parc
, and Clorindo Testa
, as well as painters Romulo Macció
, Luis Felipe Noé
, Jorge de la Vega
, Ernesto Deira, Antonio Seguí
, and conceptual art
ists such as Edgardo Giménez and Marta Minujín
. The latter garnered interest after earning the institute's first National Award in 1964, and became known for her "happening
s." Erotic in some aspects, and provocative to conservative local audiences, her early di Tella Institute events included Eróticos en technicolor and the interactive Revuélquese y viva (Roll Around in Bed and Live). She then joined Rubén Santantonín in 1965 to create La Menesunda (Mayhem), where participants were asked to go through sixteen chambers, each separated by a human-shaped entry. Led by neon
lights, groups of eight visitors would encounter rooms with television sets at full blast, couples making love in bed, a cosmetics counter (complete with an attendant), a dental office from which dialing an oversized rotary phone was required to leave, a walk-in freezer with dangling fabrics (suggesting sides of beef), and a mirrored room with black light
ing, falling confetti, and the scent of frying food. The use of advertising throughout suggested the influence of pop art
in Minujín's "mayhem."
Already established as the leading local center for pop art
, the di Tella Institute also became a forum for art as political commentary. This was dramatized by what became the center's most contentious display, sculptor León Ferrari
's La civilización occidental y cristiana (Western-Christian Civilization), in October 1965. The work displays Christ
crucified
not by the traditional cross
; but by a fighter plane
, as a symbolic protest against the Vietnam War
.
A turn of historical events in 1966 proved detrimental to the institute, and to freedom of expression, when the civilian administration of President Arturo Illia was deposed on June 28 by the Argentine Armed Forces, and was replaced with the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Juan Carlos Onganía
. Moderate in comparison with many of his counterparts in other Latin American nations, Onganía was, however, a member of the right-wing Catholic
power group, Opus Dei
, and as such, found many of the developments in Argentine culture during the 1960s offensive. Sharing his distaste for modern culture was Luis Margaride, whom he named head of the Federal District Police
, and who would be remembered for his crusades against nightclubs, long hair, and miniskirts. Facing a government policy backdrop such as this, numerous avant-garde artists (and others, particularly in academia) left Argentina, many never to return.
A self-styled mazanana loca (city block of madness), the center's agenda remained active initially, and this new era was marked by the advent of the "Experience"a fusion of the more controversial happenings with experimental theatre
. The decline in audiences and contributions, as well as the Siam di Tella Corporation's own, mounting financial problems, led to the curtailment of most of its activities by 1969, however. The Ford Foundation continued to support the institute, though these grants were contractually limited to social studies. The director, Enrique Oteiza, and two leading board members, Jorge Sábato
and Roberto Cortés Conde, resigned, and in May 1970, the famed Florida Street center hosted its last exhibition, a theatrical production by Marilú Marini. The foundation was bankrupt, and only the sale in 1971 of numerous works from its collection of Gothic
, Renaissance, and Baroque art
to the federal government for 2.1 million pesos (US$500,000), staved off its liquidation.
Remembered nostalgically by friends of the arts, and particularly during the "Dirty War
" of the late 1970s, when repression of political terrorism quickly extended to dissidents and controversial artists, the institute's absence became a example of the "cultural blackout" described by writer Ernesto Sábato
at the time. Following President Néstor Kirchner
's appointment of Torcuato Di Tella (jr.) as Secretary of Culture in 2003, the idea of reviving the storied center was first plausibly discussed by the president of the board of regents of Torcuato di Tella University, Manuel Mora y Araujo.
Much of the 1960s-era documentation and numerous works had been stord by the library at the university, the di Tella family's surviving contribution to local culture, and the material's recataloguing was inititated in 2004. New facilities were developed that year from a former water company building by one of the center's alumni, sculptor and architect Clorindo Testa
, and on April 21, 2007, the institute's center for visual arts was reinaugurated at the Figueroa Alcorta Avenue
location with the Otro Modo (Another Way) Festival. Continuing to host media and conceptual art
displays, the institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in March 2008.
Overview
The di Tella Foundation and its institute were created on July 22, 1958, the tenth anniversary of the death of industrialist and arts patron Torcuato di TellaTorcuato di Tella
Torcuato di Tella was an Argentine industrialist and philanthropist.-Life and times:Torcuato di Tella was born in Capracotta, Italy, in 1892. He arrived in Argentina at age 13 and settled in Buenos Aires...
. Funding for the project, organized by his sons, Torcuato and Guido di Tella
Guido di Tella
Guido di Tella was an Argentine businessman, academic and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Relations between 1991 and 1999.-Early career:Guido José Mario Di Tella was born in Buenos Aires, 1931...
, was raised using the United States model of corporate financing, as well as by the donation of 10 % of the Siam di Tella
Siam di Tella
Siam Di Tella was an Argentine manufacturing company; the name Siam is an acronym from Sección Industrial Amasadoras Mecánicas.-Early years:...
corporation's public stock. Its obective was initially limited to an arts program revolving primarily around the display of the di Tella family's private collections, which prominently included works by Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
and Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
.
The board of the foundation consisted of family members, though the institute was directed by a board that included academics and intellectuals from outside the family. Guido di Tella would serve as president, and the post of director of the institute was offered to Enrique Oteiza, whose family were leading Pampas-area landowners. The foundation also received funding in the form of grants from the Ford
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
and Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
s, after which the modest initiative expanded into theater and music, and grew to become the most significant cultural institution in Buenos Aires of the 1960s.
The institute continued to influence prevailing trends in the history of Argentine culture, however, and it adopted and advanced a modernist trend in various artistic disciplines. Its audiovisual center, established in 1960, and directed by Roberto Villanueva, premiered with a play, El Desatino (The Folly). The production's scenery backdrops were projected through slides, and introduced audiences to Nacha Guevara
Nacha Guevara
Nacha Guevara is an Argentine singer and actress from Mar de Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Trained as a dancer and actress, she discovered by chance a career as a singer becoming a symbol in the song of protest movement around 1968 in the avant-garde Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires, the...
and Les Luthiers
Les Luthiers
Les Luthiers is an Argentine comedy-musical group, very popular also in several other Spanish-speaking countries such as Paraguay, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela. They were formed in 1967 by Gerardo Masana, during the height of a period of very...
. This format would be promoted in subsequent years for its ability to broadcast material through compact and portable media in a way that would stimulate a network of local groups active in the cultural field.
Following its establishment, the di Tella art collection was transferred to the foundation, and Jorge Romero Brest
Jorge Romero Brest
Jorge Aníbal Romero Brest was an influential art critic in Argentina who helped popularize avant-garde art in his country.-Life and work:...
hosted a free show at the National Museum of Fine Arts
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires)
The National Museum of Fine Arts is an Argentine art museum in Buenos Aires, located in the Recoleta section of the city. The MNBA inaugurated a branch in Neuquén in 2004.-History:...
, which the leading local art critic directed. The activities were transferred to a small office in the Museum of Fine Arts in August 1960, and this was followed by an annual award for national and international artists, many of which sold their works to the di Tella collection. As part of the awards program, the winners were awarded scholarships covering study abroad and an exhibition of works in a North American or European gallery. Growing local interest in Latin American art
Latin American art
Latin American art is the combined artistic expressions of South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Mexico, as well as Latin American living in other regions....
was accompanied by an initiative to show the di Tella collection across the Argentine hinterland, for which a minibus was purchased in 1963; the experiment, however, ended the following year, when the vehicle crashed in a rural La Rioja
La Rioja Province (Argentina)
La Rioja is a one of the provinces of Argentina and is located in the west of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Catamarca, Córdoba, San Luis and San Juan.-History:...
road.
An initiative by Guido di Tella led to the institute's relocation into a modern, newly-completed Florida Street
Florida Street
Florida Street is an elegant shopping street in Downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. A pedestrian street since 1971, some stretches have been pedestrianized since 1913....
building in August 1963. The offices were rented by SIAM di Tella at the northern end of Florida Street, near Plaza San Martín
Plaza San Martín (Buenos Aires)
Plaza San Martín is a park located in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Situated at the northern end of pedestrianized Florida Street, the park is bounded by Libertador Ave. , Maipú St. , Santa Fe Avenue , and Leandro Alem Av....
, a busy pedestrian intersection in the upscale Retiro
Retiro, Buenos Aires
Retiro is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the northeast end of the city, Retiro is bordered on the south by the Puerto Madero and San Nicolás wards, and on the west by the Recoleta ward.-Urban character:...
district that could attract larger audiences. The building was refurbished with the addition of three stage theatres, and interiors designed to be inviting, with a floor-to-ceiling glass panel façade featuring publicity photos taken by Humberto Rivas, and a large lobby. The modern, air-conditioned building was propitious for exhibits and artistic events year-round. Its café, like the gallery, was staffed by attendants who wore no uniforms, and allowed patrons to smoke and take photographs at their leisure.
Founded by classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composer Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
, CLAEM (the Latin American Center for Advanced Musical Studies) was made part of the institute in 1962, yielding numerous productions of dodecaphonic, electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, and acoustic music
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
; CLAEM attracted prominent international guest lecturers such as Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
, and Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
. A visual arts center (CAV) was also inaugurated at the new address. Directed by Romero Brest, CAV became the leading Buenos Aires center for the display and promotion for avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
creations. CAV introduced art patrons to sculptors Juan Carlos Distéfano, Julio Le Parc
Julio Le Parc
Julio le Parc is a modern Latin American kinetic artist born in 1928 and active mainly in Argentina. He is also an Op artist.-External links:**...
, and Clorindo Testa
Clorindo Testa
Clorindo Manuel José Testa is an Italian-Argentine architect and artist. He graduated from the School of Architecture at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1948....
, as well as painters Romulo Macció
Romulo Macció
Romulo Macció is an Argentine painter associated with the local avant-garde art movement that took shape in the 1960s.-Life and work:...
, Luis Felipe Noé
Luis Felipe Noé
Luis Felipe Noé is an artist, writer, intellectual and teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina where he is known as Yuyo. In 1961 he formed Otra Figuración with three other Argentine artists. Their eponymous exhibition and subsequent work greatly influenced the Neofiguration movement...
, Jorge de la Vega
Jorge de la Vega
Jorge de la Vega was an Argentine abstract painter. His wife was Pauleta de la Vega....
, Ernesto Deira, Antonio Seguí
Antonio Seguí
- Biography :Seguí is the oldest son of a middle-class and has three siblings. In the years from 1951 to 1954 he traveled through Europe and Africa, was visiting student at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris,...
, and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
ists such as Edgardo Giménez and Marta Minujín
Marta Minujín
Marta Minujín is an Argentine Conceptual artist.-Life and work:Marta Minujín was born in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. She met a young economist, Juan Carlos Gómez Sabaini, and married him in secret in 1959; the couple had two children...
. The latter garnered interest after earning the institute's first National Award in 1964, and became known for her "happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s." Erotic in some aspects, and provocative to conservative local audiences, her early di Tella Institute events included Eróticos en technicolor and the interactive Revuélquese y viva (Roll Around in Bed and Live). She then joined Rubén Santantonín in 1965 to create La Menesunda (Mayhem), where participants were asked to go through sixteen chambers, each separated by a human-shaped entry. Led by neon
Neon
Neon is the chemical element that has the symbol Ne and an atomic number of 10. Although a very common element in the universe, it is rare on Earth. A colorless, inert noble gas under standard conditions, neon gives a distinct reddish-orange glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or...
lights, groups of eight visitors would encounter rooms with television sets at full blast, couples making love in bed, a cosmetics counter (complete with an attendant), a dental office from which dialing an oversized rotary phone was required to leave, a walk-in freezer with dangling fabrics (suggesting sides of beef), and a mirrored room with black light
Black light
A black light, also referred to as a UV light, ultraviolet light, or Wood's lamp, is a lamp that emits ultraviolet radiation in the long-wave range, and little visible light...
ing, falling confetti, and the scent of frying food. The use of advertising throughout suggested the influence of pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
in Minujín's "mayhem."
Already established as the leading local center for pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
, the di Tella Institute also became a forum for art as political commentary. This was dramatized by what became the center's most contentious display, sculptor León Ferrari
León Ferrari
León Ferrari , is a contemporary conceptual artist.Born in Buenos Aires, Ferrari employs methods such as collage, photocopying and sculpture in wood, plaster or ceramics. He often uses text, particularly newspaper clippings or poetry, in his pieces...
's La civilización occidental y cristiana (Western-Christian Civilization), in October 1965. The work displays Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
crucified
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
not by the traditional cross
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
; but by a fighter plane
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
, as a symbolic protest against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
.
A turn of historical events in 1966 proved detrimental to the institute, and to freedom of expression, when the civilian administration of President Arturo Illia was deposed on June 28 by the Argentine Armed Forces, and was replaced with the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía
Juan Carlos Onganía Carballo was de facto president of Argentina from 29 June 1966 to 8 June 1970. He rose to power as military dictator after toppling, in a coup d’état self-named Revolución Argentina , the democratically elected president Arturo Illia .-Economic and social...
. Moderate in comparison with many of his counterparts in other Latin American nations, Onganía was, however, a member of the right-wing Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
power group, Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
, and as such, found many of the developments in Argentine culture during the 1960s offensive. Sharing his distaste for modern culture was Luis Margaride, whom he named head of the Federal District Police
Policía Federal Argentina
The Policía Federal Argentina is a police force of the Argentine federal government. The PFA has detachments throughout the country, but its main responsibility is policing the Federal District of Buenos Aires...
, and who would be remembered for his crusades against nightclubs, long hair, and miniskirts. Facing a government policy backdrop such as this, numerous avant-garde artists (and others, particularly in academia) left Argentina, many never to return.
A self-styled mazanana loca (city block of madness), the center's agenda remained active initially, and this new era was marked by the advent of the "Experience"a fusion of the more controversial happenings with experimental theatre
Experimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...
. The decline in audiences and contributions, as well as the Siam di Tella Corporation's own, mounting financial problems, led to the curtailment of most of its activities by 1969, however. The Ford Foundation continued to support the institute, though these grants were contractually limited to social studies. The director, Enrique Oteiza, and two leading board members, Jorge Sábato
Jorge Sábato
Jorge Alberto Sábato Argentine physics and technologist.In 1955 he created the Metallurgy department at CNEA, which was its director up to 1968 when he became Technology manager of the CNEA....
and Roberto Cortés Conde, resigned, and in May 1970, the famed Florida Street center hosted its last exhibition, a theatrical production by Marilú Marini. The foundation was bankrupt, and only the sale in 1971 of numerous works from its collection of Gothic
Gothic art
Gothic art was a Medieval art movement that developed in France out of Romanesque art in the mid-12th century, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, but took over art more completely north of the Alps, never quite effacing more classical...
, Renaissance, and Baroque art
Baroque art
Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western...
to the federal government for 2.1 million pesos (US$500,000), staved off its liquidation.
Remembered nostalgically by friends of the arts, and particularly during the "Dirty War
Dirty War
The Dirty War was a period of state-sponsored violence in Argentina from 1976 until 1983. Victims of the violence included several thousand left-wing activists, including trade unionists, students, journalists, Marxists, Peronist guerrillas and alleged sympathizers, either proved or suspected...
" of the late 1970s, when repression of political terrorism quickly extended to dissidents and controversial artists, the institute's absence became a example of the "cultural blackout" described by writer Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato
Ernesto Sabato , was an Argentine writer, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America"...
at the time. Following President Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Kirchner
Néstor Carlos Kirchner was an Argentine politician who served as the 54th President of Argentina from 25 May 2003 until 10 December 2007. Previously, he was Governor of Santa Cruz Province since 10 December 1991. He briefly served as Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations ...
's appointment of Torcuato Di Tella (jr.) as Secretary of Culture in 2003, the idea of reviving the storied center was first plausibly discussed by the president of the board of regents of Torcuato di Tella University, Manuel Mora y Araujo.
Much of the 1960s-era documentation and numerous works had been stord by the library at the university, the di Tella family's surviving contribution to local culture, and the material's recataloguing was inititated in 2004. New facilities were developed that year from a former water company building by one of the center's alumni, sculptor and architect Clorindo Testa
Clorindo Testa
Clorindo Manuel José Testa is an Italian-Argentine architect and artist. He graduated from the School of Architecture at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1948....
, and on April 21, 2007, the institute's center for visual arts was reinaugurated at the Figueroa Alcorta Avenue
Figueroa Alcorta Avenue
Avenida Figueroa Alcorta is a major thoroughfare in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a length of over along the city's northside.-History:The rapid northward growth of the city of Buenos Aires during the late nineteenth century was facilitated by plans for a number of boulevards in the area by Mayor...
location with the Otro Modo (Another Way) Festival. Continuing to host media and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
displays, the institute celebrated its 50th anniversary in March 2008.