"Del 76"

This audiovisual work pays tribute to national rock as a form of resistance and expression during the civil-military coup d’état in Argentina (1976-1983). The visual and sound tour explores how rock became a space of resistance against repression, a means for young people to express their ideals, connect with a collective identity and build a language of opposition to authoritarianism. National rock, beyond music and lyrics, functioned as a vehicle of identity, an artistic refuge in times of censorship and persecution. The work captures the essence of a cultural movement that transcended the limits of music to become a symbol of struggle. Thus, the piece becomes a tribute to that generation that, through its music, not only found resistance, but also a way to reclaim collective memory and keep hope alive in dark times.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

“The work of art always implied its own reproduction. When it proposes itself to perception and memory, it is inevitable that it gives off ghosts in time and space.” (Aira, 2010). The reproduction of contemporary art generates a debate about how the work of art relates to its technical reproduction and how it has changed over time. Aira points out that reproduction has been a part of art since ancient times, from copies of Greek statues to the invention of photography. With the advent of contemporary art, especially installations, the work of art began to break with the traditional idea of ​​reproduction. Instead of following the usual forms of copying or representation, he began to challenge the methods and tools used to reproduce it. This phenomenon can also be analyzed from the perspective of censorship and repression that occurred during the Argentine civil-military dictatorship (1976-1983). During this period, the censorship imposed on music and visual arts forced artists to adopt forms of resistance, similar to contemporary art installations, mocking traditional methods of reproduction. The censored songs were altered or modified so that only those who shared the political context of the time could understand the hidden messages. As in contemporary art, where works escape the possibility of being completely reproduced, some songs and performances from that time became impossible to reproduce in their entirety. A clear example is the use of the media during the dictatorship. Songs by artists such as Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, León Gieco, etc. although censored or modified, they found ways to avoid repression, creating an “expanded reproduction” of their messages. That is to say, the songs not only transmitted what was in the air, but also opened the door to a variety of interpretations, to a resistance that could not be captured even by the same media in charge of monitoring and censoring. “We should speak of “expanded reproduction”, no longer expanded along the lines of technical improvement, but expanded in all directions, or better, in all dimensions, even the heterogeneous ones” (Aira, 2010). Here, art and culture become a narrative that is not reduced to the physical work, but extends to stories, interpretations and moments that cannot be fully captured or reproduced. “Maintaining a quantum of irreproducibility became the task that indicated the direction in which we should go. That made Contemporary Art an art of formats, an epic of formats in flight” (Aira, 2010). In this way, both contemporary art and music during the dictatorship created a “different history” that could not be copied or reproduced. Censorship, by trying to control what could be heard, gave it an even more rebellious character, turning it into a form of resistance in which the “unreproducible” became a tool of rebellion. Both contemporary art and music during the dictatorship shared a logic of resistance to total reproduction, creating works that not only escaped the capabilities of the media, but were built around what was out of reach, what escaped, and what could not be fully understood or censored. “Expanded reproduction”, then, not only refers to the evolution of the technique, but to an expansion of the work that takes place in the space of collective memory, interpretation and social change, just as occurred with protest music in Argentina.

Literature

Aira, César. Sobre el arte contemporáneo seguido de En La Habana. Buenos Aires: Grijalbo-Mondadori, 2010.

Instituto Nacional De La Musica(INAMU): chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.inamu.musica.ar/pdf/CancionesProhibidasDictadura.pdf