ELECTRA is an independent Portuguese magazine, published by the EDP Foundation, which focuses on cultural, social and political criticism and reflection of events related to our current affairs. Among its pages it questions the trends, ideas, images and mythologies that shape and move the times in which we live. But it is not an academic magazine and it does not pursue what is happening, on the contrary it maintains a certain distance from journalistic immediacy.
Number of pages: 256
Cover: soft
English language
ISSUE 11 - FAME
What does it mean to be famous in our day? And who are these famous men and women who impose their image and set trends? Fame is the topic of Electra issue 11.
Today, in a widespread communication society, fame is an aspiration that does not need justification through exceptional achievements or works because the act of appearing and being famous on a large scale has become an end in itself. Famous people, VIPs, stars are real social actors who cross our universe at great speed and in an ephemeral way. This edition of Electra delves into the subject through texts by Mario Pezzella, Laurent de Sutter, Éric Marty, João Pacheco, Rita Figueiras, Robert van Krieken, Barry King and António Guerreiro, and is illustrated with images by Julia Wachtel and Andy Warhol.
In the “First Person” section, the Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty, a leading figure in postcolonial studies and author of a book that has had a profound international impact, Provincializing Europe, is interviewed by historians José Neves and Marcos Cardão.
Kara Walker, one of the most important contemporary artists, is the author of the "Portfolio" of this edition. Using gender and identity issues, or topics such as racism or violence as a starting point, this artwork brings them closer in their complexities and contradictions. The works presented (ink, graphite and watercolor, paper collage, clippings), are accompanied by a text by Sofia Steinvorth.
The "Scoop" section reveals the original works of one of today's most famous photographers, South African Jo Ractliffe.
Luiz Feldman, Brazilian professor and diplomat, analyzes and compares the visions of Brazil conceived by the sociologist Gilberto Freyre and the historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda;
The Italian journalist and writer, Cristina Battocletti, outlines a portrait of Robert Bazlen, founder of the Adelphi publishing house, translator and writer with very few published books, who has become a cult figure, and visits the city where he was born, Trieste, the birthplace of a extraordinarily rich cultural and literary scene;
the poet Manuel de Freitas comments on a chronicle by Fernando Pessoa on celebrity status;
director Anthony El Chidiac writes about love and sex, freedom and threat, life and death, in a diary traveling between Lebanon and Argentina;
the historian and researcher Júlia Leitão de Barros revisits the Portuguese Universal Exposition, which took place in 1940, in Lisbon;
the urban planner and geographer Jacques Lévy talks about cities, people and their daily life, open societies, democracy and “serendipity”;
... and so on.