Elogio aos trapos: a alegoria do Trapeiro e suas ressonâncias na moda e na prática artística de Vicenta Perrotta

Abstract

This article investigates the Ragpicker figure as an allegory of ruin and urban marginality, articulating its relationships with fashion and contemporary artistic practices. This is a theoretical-analytical study based on bibliographic review and case study, aiming to understand how the aesthetics of waste and discarded materials are resignified within the fields of fashion and art. The research begins with the historical construction of the Ragpicker in modernity, drawing on authors such as Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin, highlighting the Ragpicker’s condition as a wandering subject who collects and reconfigures the remnants of the city. It then analyzes the incorporation of the aesthetics of rags into fashion through the reflections of Flávio de Carvalho, emphasizing processes of symbolic valorization of what is socially rejected. Finally, the article develops a case study of Brazilian artist Vicenta Perrotta, whose textile transmutation practice is grounded in the collection of industrial waste and in the construction of a technology of the self. The study concludes that both the Ragpicker and the artist operate through the resignification of remnants, producing new forms of existence, visibility, and social critique.