sion; they thereupon proceeded to fill the gallery with garbage and trash. The Peruvian adventure culminated in 1969 with the Conceptual work of Rafael Hastings (b. 1945), who in an exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art, showed the course ofjuan Acha's development by a display of documents. Through its imitation of U.S. Pop Art and the satellite position it adopted with respect to U.S. and European Conceptual art—consecrated at the "Documenta" exhibit in Kassel, Germany—the avant-garde succeeded in making a way for itself from one end of Latin America to the other. Few attempts were made, however, to "nationalize" those forms of expression. In 1967 the Bogota Museum of Modern Art inaugurated an exhibit entitled "Environmental Spaces," at which five young artists—among them Alvaro Barrios (b. 1945), the future leader of the nonobjective trend—were given a whole floor for their presentation. This single experiment featured a maquette executed by a popular artist, so gigantic that it had to be stored on the Museum grounds until one of the walls of the room in which it was to be displayed could be demolished (and later rebuilt, at the Museum's expense). In 1968, however, the Brazilians and Argentines outdid the Colombians. In Brazil a public art month, called "Art in the Street," was organized by the critic Frederico Morais. Participants included Wilma Martins (b. 1934), Wanda Pimentel (b. 1943), Helio Oiticica (b. 1937), and Roberto Moriconi (born in Italy in 1932, came to Brazil in 1953). This occasion provided further evidence of the social orientation of the avant-garde, which sought to involve a public that was already accustomed to extroverted rituals and spur-of-the-moment spectacles. Oiticica's versatility and ingenuity were demonstrated by his parangoles, consisting of mantle-covered bodies which provided lively illustrations for the texts that were included. The populist and critical intent of the Brazilian movement, which was strengthened later by the contribution of groups in the Northeast, set it off from the one in Argentina, which was characterized by sophistication and elements of laboratory experimentation, even in its politically oriented action. In Brazil, violence took the name of "Apocalypopothesis." In Argentina Pablo Suarez (b. 1937) and Roberto Jacoby (b. 1944) initiated dissident action within the Di Telia Institute. Their slogan was "What counts is life." Their most visible achievement was the performance Tucumdn in Flames, in which they sought to involve the public by calling on the Workers' Federation and the community at large to participate. The scandalshow put on by the Di Telia Institute in 1968 was "Impo-Expo: Buenos Aires Up to Date." It evidenced little in the way of ingenuity and still less in the way of critical judgment. Paradoxically, the "new objectivity" and nonobjective art produced numerous "objects," such as the "box-poems" which Lygia Pape (b. 1929) turned out in Brazil in 1967, and the novel archaeological book-objects which Jacques Bedel (b. 1947) authored in Argentina in 1968. Objects were also destroyed. They were however of less value than those used by the Europeans in such cases. In 1970, for example, the Brazilian Cildo Meireles (b. 1948) burned chickens alive. In the course of the numerous performances he put on later, he recorded
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