“Architectural history will always seem the fruit of an unresolved dialectic. The interweaving of intellectual models, modes of production, and modes of consumption ought to lead to the “explosion” of the synthesis contained.”
Manfredo Tafuri

Anorexia is usually defined as an eating disorder resulting from a pathologic desire of being thinner and thinner. In contradiction to this phenomenon that still is one of today’s social issues (France has just recently banned anorexic models due to the rise of people suffering of such a disorder), a high percentage of world’s population suffer of the opposite problem: overweight and – in some cases – its pathological manifestation: obesity. Interestingly enough, both of these problems – “Fat” and “Anorexic” – are issues for the richest part of the world: the society born from the ashes of the Enlightment which values are “Freedom”, “Equality” and “Justice”. As noticed by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, our culture is indeed influenced by what they called as “cultural industry”, an industry that produces standardized cultural goods and – more importantly – an imaginary that we contribute to formulate as well as being influenced by. Indeed, both anorexia and the problem of being over-weight are related to today’s imaginary: they are both the desperate and perverse attempt of trying to be part of its performativity and fit/skinny imaginary (Anorexia) or the result of the failure of being part of it (over-weight/obesity) resulting in an unconfident subjectivity that finds certainty and consolation in food.

Since architecture is one of the main cultural disciplines that help in the definition of a society’s episteme and imaginary, the next issue of Burrasca will ask for contributions reflecting on how these terms can be referred to architecture. What is the relationship between the body, its contemporary fashion and architecture? Is there a relationship between anorexia and over-weight bodies and the contemporary manifestations of our disciplines? Is fat/anorexic a dialectic couple that can describe today’s architectural perversions and pathologies as well as its aesthetics and formalisms?

Burrasca is pleased to receive submissions that investigate the topic “Fat/Anorexic” under this slant, embracing the larger number of matters included in it.

Fat and/or Anorexic as architectural metaphors.

Fat/Anorexic as a dialectical couple of formal or conceptual concepts in relation to the discipline of architecture.

Fat/Anorexic as a contraposition between a maximalist formal approach and a minimalist one.

Fat/Anorexic in urban matters in relation to different modes of urban design, in terms of size and weight or economics.

Fat and Anorexic as properties of radical thinking in architecture, from the Rococo to the Radical erasing of architectural shape passing through many different tendencies alongside all of architectural history.

Architecture as a body, distressed by the same physical diseases of a complex living organism.

Possible theoretical speculations about the definition of this topic in architecture and its poetics.

Artworks or projects investigating this issue.

 

ABSTRACT — deadline 24/01/2016

Submit 100 words that better describe both the form and the content of your contribution. Please, also add 5 keywords and your short bio in 25 words. In the case your submission will be a visual work, please attach at least two references: pictures, images or graphics. Email us to submissions@burrasca.eu

SUBMISSION — deadline 29/02/2016

We accept 2 kinds of contributions: textual or visual.

If your submission is textual (e.g. essays, interviews, articles and anything else you might suggest), please write a maximum of 1300 words. We prefer a really simple and plain style edited according to the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. Please attach also maximum 5 high res CMYK images.

If the submission is a visual work, (e.g. photo-essays, graphics, illustrations or projects), please consider a maximum field of 4 21×27,5 cm pages or 2 42×27,5 cm and contact us for additional information.

Burrasca’s board encourages the submission of any kind of inventive material and original contributions by every person, even independent thinkers and people who are not related to academic institutions. Burrasca is a printed series of publications with ISBN codification published twice a year. Please contact us if you would like to submit material that does not seem to fit in our criteria.