Marta Minujín
Americas Society, New York
When the then Center for Inter American Relations in New York commissioned Argentine artist Marta Minujín to develop the project that could recently be seen at the Americas Society which later absorbed the mentioned center, Minujín was well known in the art scene, and not only in the underground one. The artist, a friend of Andy Warhol’s and at that time more famous then he was, is a prominent figure of the artistic avantgarde of the 1960s and 1970s, and a pioneer of “happenings”.
Minucode, an extensión of the artist’s interest in the media, offers a “multisocial environment” as she herself described it in which to explore the social codes of four large groups which were then well differentiated: the worlds of art, business, fashion, and politics. Thus, the artist invited leading figures in each of the mentioned areas to a series of cocktail parties conceived by Minujín as a way of climbing up the social scale organized in accordance with these social categories. Through a succession of video shots (originally 16 mm films) taken from different vantage points, and through the use of sound and light, the artist created a series of films, some of which could be seen as large scale projections in the main exhibition hall of the Americas Society. Indeed, this space took the audience back to the New York social scene of the mid 60’s, highlighting an interesting way of gathering together art, politics and memory in the same place.
Besides, the show also allowed the audience to create its own environment through an interactive software that encouraged attendants to select slides and a soundtrack, producing original footage and sound pieces that recreated the notion of environment in which the artist is so interested. Documentary material from the “original version” of Minucode, as well as inter- esting pieces created in collaboration with artists like Allan Kaprow or Wolf Vostel, complemented the show.
