The Socio-environmental Implications of Argentina’s Informal Economy in Antonio Berni’s Xilo-collage <i>Inundación en el barrio de Juanito</i> (1961)

Through a socio-aesthetic analysis of the xilo-collage Inundación en el barrio de Juanito realized in 1961 by acclaimed Argentinian visual and plastic artist Antonio Berni (1905–1981), the present article offers an ecocritical perspective on the anthropological and environmental consequences of the deposit of trash and floods affecting the unregulated residential settlements of the metropolitan areas of Buenos Aires and their portrayal in Berni’s artwork. By analysing the connections between objets trouvés, or recycled art, urban migration, the irregular economy and natural elements, this study considers plastic art as an alternative form of text that, just like literature, works as a dynamic archive of the intricate relationship between urban settlers, rubbish and the innocent yet disastrous rainfalls influencing their neighbourhoods.