La ciudad luz

Maps rank among the favorite raw materials of Jorge Macchi, although he also has a keen interest in other print sources, such as newspapers, notebooks and musical scores. Macchi views the map as a representation of the city in which he is able to intervene directly, for example, by making subtle cutouts through which he surgically subtracts certain features, leaving intact only streets, rivers or cemeteries. Alternatively, he turns maps into navigation charts, as in Buenos Aires tour (2003), where he suggests itineraries on a shattered glass sheet placed over a city map of his hometown. La ciudad luz (2007) plays with the shadow cast by a map of Paris, the city of light, on a larger map spread out on the floor. When this work was originally presented, Macchi likened it to the literary genre of short stories in which the narrative focus is on the littlest changes in meaning, decontextualization and the contrast between the ephemeral and the permanent.