Magdalena Jitrik’s work is indebted to the political and aesthetic avant-garde. As the artist comments, ‘in every avant-garde there is a liberating point of no-return: my work begins with the discovery of the forgotten avant-garde and painters like Juan Del Prete, Yente and Lidy Prati, who had no intention of showing virtuosity in their way of painting’. In addition to the recognition of these three Argentinian artists (Yente is the pseudonym of Eugenia Crenovich and Lidy the familiar name of Elena Prati) who were known for geometrical and abstract painting, Jitrik often emphasises the abstraction of Russian Constructivism among her creative referents. Jitrik’s works carry a clearly political sensibility, as evidenced by some of the slogans she uses, such as Libertos. Libres. Liberados (Libertus, Liberty, Liberated); APPO (Asamblea de los pueblos de Oaxaca); and Idea de sociedad sin patrones ni desocupados (An ideal society without employers or unemployed). Her work frequently contains historical revolutionary and political references. In the works in the MACBA Collection, dating from 2005, 2010 and 2013, Jitrik starts with constructive elements and irregular geometric forms to build architectural structures. In Templo, she evokes a religious architecture similar to the temples of pre-Columbian America, a civilisation that the artist has acknowledged in her work on numerous occasions. In El fin, el principio, the title of the work crowns a tower-shaped building that could be part of a dystopia or a future city. And in Edifico Letra, she constructs a building with letters inscribed on the façade, a device she uses habitually.