Spring 2022
Issue 16
Identity(ies)
Catherine Malabou
Anarquia e Prazer
Almeida Faria
Merce Cunningham
Jorge Queiroz
Mayank Austen Soofi
Velha Deli
Shaking the Spirits
Creole rap
Nanni Moretti
Natalia Ginzburg
Éric Marty
Olivia Rosenthal
Nathalie Heinich
Félix Duque
Francisco Bethencourt
Frédéric Neyrat
Diogo Ramada Curto
editorial
Editorial
José Manuel dos Santos and António Soares
About this edition

Identity(ies) is one of the great political questions of our time and the central theme of the 16th issue of Electra, marking the fourth year of this project. In recent decades, the concept of Identity(ies) has expanded vastly in the social, cultural and political fields as both a cause and instrument of activist movements and in theoretical developments in the various branches of cultural studies. Gender, sexuality, "race", ethnicity, culture and nationality are territories which appeal to a feeling of belonging while also defining a struggle for recognition. Interviews with Éric Marty, Francisco Bethencourt and Nathalie Heinich, and texts by Diogo Ramada Curto, Félix Duque, Frédéric Neyrat and Olivia Rosenthal all revolve around identity issues.

In “In the First Person” section, Afonso Dias Ramos interviews Catherine Malabou, one of the most prominent philosophers of this century, covering a wide range of issues relating to contemporary critical thought such as neuroscience, feminism, Artificial Intelligence, cryptocurrencies, epigenetic trauma and sexual pleasure.

The Portfolio featured in this issue is by Jorge Queiroz, a skilled draughtsman and highly original painter whose work constructs a personal contemporaneity in dialogue with the artistic movements that have shaped our modernity. The portfolio is accompanied by a text by curator Antonia Gaeta.

A new section, “Planisphere”, presents an essay-feature in which musician, programmer and editor Pedro Gomes talks to artists involved in Creole rap, revealing stories from the outer suburbs of Greater Lisbon and the South Bank. This piece also features images taken for Electra by photographer Diogo Simões and a brief history of Creole rap in Portugal by anthropologist Otávio Raposo.

Also in Electra 16, novelist Almeida Faria makes an incursion into the diaristic genre on the basis of a sojourn in Munich, paying tribute to literary fiction and, in particular, to the writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger while casting a critical eye over Portugal; Indian writer and photographer Mayank Austen Soofi guides us through Old Delhi, the historic quarter of India's capital; essayist, philosopher, poet and playwright Jean-Christophe Bailly offers a text about the not so evident relationship between literature and architecture; and writer Cristina Fernandes interprets an aphorism by Paul Valéry.

Also in this issue, dancer, choreographer and editor João dos Santos Martins relates some surprising stories connected to the first visit to Portugal of Merce Cunningham's dance company in 1966; Ivan Nunes writes about Three Floors, the latest film by director Nanni Moretti; Golgona Anghel writes about The Little Virtues, a book by writer Natalia Ginzburg; and, in the “Dictionary of Received Ideas”, António Guerreiro discusses the word “Empathy”.

Identity(ies)
Identity(ies)
Identity and conflict
Identity and conflict
Éric Marty: ‘The term “gender” offers a new rationality, rather like “proletariat”’
Éric Marty: ‘The term “gender” offers a new rationality, rather like “proletariat”’
Art in the feminine
Art in the feminine
Nathalie Heinich: ‘The term “identity” is liable to be used both by right-wing nationalists and by the community-led extreme left.’
Nathalie Heinich: ‘The term “identity” is liable to be used both by right-wing nationalists and by the community-led extreme left.’
Identitarianism and populism
Identitarianism and populism
Francisco Bethencourt: ‘Nationalisms have always been based on mythicised narratives of the past’
Francisco Bethencourt: ‘Nationalisms have always been based on mythicised narratives of the past’
Negative: desire, blackness, clamour
Negative: desire, blackness, clamour
Racism, forced labour and ethnography
Racism, forced labour and ethnography
Old Delhi saudade*
Old Delhi saudade*
Jorge Queiroz: Archimedes bath
Jorge Queiroz: Archimedes bath
Catherine Malabou: Anarchy and pleasure, scenes of a plastic life
Catherine Malabou: Anarchy and pleasure, scenes of a plastic life
Paul Valéry: ‘Our most important thoughts are those that contradict our feelings’
Paul Valéry: ‘Our most important thoughts are those that contradict our feelings’
The artists arrived in Lisbon yesterday, from Paris, on a TAP plane
The artists arrived in Lisbon yesterday, from Paris, on a TAP plane
Creole Rap
Creole Rap
Creole rap: the soundtrack of the outskirts
Creole rap: the soundtrack of the outskirts
Three Floors, by Nanni Moretti – Dancing on the sly
Three Floors, by Nanni Moretti – Dancing on the sly
Natalia Ginzburg’s Little Virtues: This sober, unbiased measure of simplicity
Natalia Ginzburg’s Little Virtues: This sober, unbiased measure of simplicity