The series of articles that compose the ‘Subject’ of this issue of Electra deal with the topic of excess. Since the criterion behind these thematic sections, treated according to a regime of essayistic discourse, is to highlight and navigate some territories that have gained prominence within the contemporary panorama, excess, in its ceaseless and wild manifestations in every domain of social, cultural and political life, is the quintessential contemporary topic, the rule under which we live.