Spregelburd/Zypce: Nothing Older

The planned tribute to Rafael Squirru will not be able to take place. The historian tasked with gathering together his thoughts, life story and work has just died in a baffling incident at the racecourse, leaving no time to reorganise the evening. A pair of folk musicians, booked to provide the music for the event, have also just sent a statement, along with apologies and explanations that no one asked for. We will celebrate, in a patriotic gesture, the oldest things in the world: modernity and the avant-garde.

In the absence of a museum and without a wealthy bourgeoisie to support the idea that our national art was ready to compete at the forefront of the avant-garde, Rafael Squirru loaded some paintings onto a ship – the Yapeyú – and set sail on 28 September 1956 for the first world tour of the Muestra flotante de 50 artistas argentinos [Floating Exhibition of 50 Argentinian Artists]. Squirru wrote on the occasion: “Some will smile when they see the obvious influences of Picasso, Klee or Mondrian; they will strive to find a folkloric touch in them and will be disappointed by the almost total absence of gauchos in wide-brimmed hats, beautiful young ladies, or picturesque Indians. So you will not see, gentlemen, what you expect to see from us. That is our fate. The captain of the Yapeyú will give his version of events, while the facts refuse to be recounted in a single way.