La virgen extraviada

de Jorge Macchi

Based on notes, maps, photographs, memories and reflections originated from a journey between Bariloche and Achao, in the Chiloé archipelago, The Lost Virgin is the first foray by visual artist Jorge Macchi in the field of literature. The book could be considered a diary of that journey made in January 2019 establishing an invisible nexus between the image of the Virgin of Loreto, a carving in polychrome wood of the seventeenth century that is located in the church of Santa María de Loreto in Achao, and its replica of the 21st century, which presides over the cathedral of Bariloche.The lost virgin is composed in a coral way, intertwining three or four related lines through the concept of replica: the chronological record of the symmetrical journey through the Cordillera, the history of the two images, autobiographical notes and references to some works or projects not carried out by Macchi.