Aldo Paparella (Minturno, Italy, 1920–Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1977) fought in Africa during the Second WW and was taken prisoner in France. He arrived in Argentina in 1950, bringing a new approach to non-figurative and Informalist sculpture. In the late-1950s, in his Sugerencias [Suggestions] series, he started working with waste materials. His aggressive use of sheet metal gave it an informal quality, and Paparella began to think from the perspective of the object itself, rather than from any traditional concepts rooted in the language of sculpture. This idea is developed in his Muebles inútiles [Useless Furniture]. In the early-1970s he makes the Monumentos inútiles [Useless Monuments], his most significant work, out of humble materials. This is an important document because it refers to an exhibition in Paparella’s hometown and makes particular mention of the relationship between the Mediterranean and the American cultures, a key element in his production. This presentation provides a good review of the theme that was at the heart of Paparella’s work in the late-1960s—the consumer society and the concept of art as a commodity. In this document, the sculptor presents his very interesting theory concerning the artist’s independence from his or her surrounding reality. This was an extraordinary idea in the context of Argentinean art, since most artists at that time had come to accept the imperative of an increasingly politicized reality. Paparella reaffirms his essentialist ideas, and speaks as though art were humanity’s last defense against the barbarians of marketplace. Perhaps that is the prism through which to view his Monumentos inútiles, which are the paradoxical and ironic works of an old POW.