An artist's book conceived by Jorge Macchi as a return—both literal and conceptual—to the city of Buenos Aires as a field of investigation.
The project originates from discarded handwritten notes found in public space: addresses, lists, diagrams, reminders, and fragmentary instructions that were never meant to be read by others. These fragile documents, suspended between privacy and exposure, function as the core material of the book. Through a precise editorial structure, Retour examines these papers as traces of anonymous lives and as involuntary scores for artistic actions. The publication unfolds as a boxed set comprising a book, posters, postcards, and a vinyl picture disc. The central volume is divided into two inverted sections: one documenting the found papers and photographs from the search, the other recording actions derived from these notes as provisional instructions.
Combining archival impulse, conceptual investigation, and poetic narration, Retour addresses readers interested in contemporary art, artist-led publishing, and the city as a site of memory, chance, and interpretation.
Jorge Macchi (born 1963) is one of the most internationally recognized Argentine artists of his generation, known for his conceptually rigorous practice that explores chance, perception, memory, and the latent narratives embedded in everyday materials. Working across drawing, installation, sound, video, and publishing, Macchi has developed a distinctive language in which minimal gestures reveal complex poetic and political resonances.
