Contemporary ragpickers, a trilogy: part 2 – Maps, readings in time

Abstract

The text presented here is part of a trilogy that intends to recognize some artists who, with their actions, their works, present the ragpicker’s characteristics. Allegory that follows the steps suggested by the speculative action of Charles Baudelaire, who, in 1863, in the text The painter of modern life, observed and constituted a critical look at the drawings of Constantin Guys, bringing him closer to his intended allegory at that time: the figure of the flâneur. Works by Argentine artists Guillermo Kuitca and Jorge Macchi, both artist-collectors, will be analyzed. Collectors of cities, of fragments reframed as a discourse of everyday urban life. They will be gathered, presented and some of his works inventoried, as a way to explain the allegorical dimension of the ragpicker.