Summer 2024
Issue 25
Lies
Martin Jay
Bárbara Reis
Daisy Dixon
Myriam Rev. d’Allonnes
Peter Hill
António Bracinha Vieira
Kafka
Gianluca Cuozzo
António Guerreiro
Jacques Le Rider
Simon Critchley
João Penalva
Georgia O’Keefe
The Modern Body
Artificial Intelligence
Vania Baldi
Seville
An Exaltation of Spring
About this edition

‘We have never lied as much as today. Nor have we ever done it so blatantly, systematically and constantly.’ These words were written by Russian-born French philosopher Alexandre Koyré during the Second World War, a statement that takes on a new and unexpected relevance in our time. The history of humanity is inseparable from the history of lies, recording its forms and metamorphoses through the centuries and according to the paradigms of each era and its social, economic, cultural and religious practices. ‘‘Lies’ is the subject of the Electra #25 central dossier, a theme that is both universal and contemporary, in an issue that includes contributions on politics, art and images, the post-truth media regime and fake news, the stages of phylogenetic natural history, and the hegemony of technology. On ‘Lies’ we find texts by Martin Jay, Bárbara Reis, Daisy Dixon, Myriam Revault d’Allonnes, Peter Hill, and António Bracinha Vieira.

For the centenary of Franz Kafka's death, this issue features three articles on the Czech writer: one by Gianluca Cuozzo on representations of bureaucracy and the exercise of power; another by António Guerreiro focusing on biographical issues; and finally, an article by Jacques Le Rider on Kafka's bilingual condition, his relationship with the German and Czech languages, and the historical and linguistic context of Prague.

Simon Critchley, one of the most prolific and popular philosophers of recent decades, speaks to Electra about some of the themes that have guided his work, from the place of philosophy in contemporary society to the disillusionment with liberal democracy, from the cultural importance of football to the challenge of autobiographical writing.

This issue's portfolio presents a new series of photographs by João Penalva, an artist widely recognised for his work that crosses video, installation, photography, music, performance, text, and image. The ‘Figure’ of this issue is Anabela Becho, fashion historian, curator and researcher, who shows us how the great American painter Georgia O'Keeffe turned the way she dressed her body into an affirmation of herself, both as a woman and a modern artist. In a new section of Electra entitled ‘Noah's Ark’, Italian sociologist Vania Baldi questions the limitless belief in AI and the ethical neglect towards new Artificial Intelligence systems.

Also in this issue, journalist Alexandra Prado Coelho and semiotics professor Gianfranco Marrone comment on a provocative statement by the famous and feared Spanish gastronomic critic Rafael García Santos; Marta G. Franco tells us about Holy Week in Seville; art critic José Marmeleira writes about a recent book by Hal Foster, one of North America’s best known art critics and historians; and António Guerreiro reflects on the word ‘Commentator’.

Lies
Lies
The Face and Its Masks of Lies
The Face and Its Masks of Lies
The Truth about Lying in Politics
The Truth about Lying in Politics
Lies that Ruin Lives
Lies that Ruin Lives
Artful Lies
Artful Lies
Post-truth, Lies and the Common World
Post-truth, Lies and the Common World
The Encyclopaedia of Lies
The Encyclopaedia of Lies
On the Border Between Lies and Truth
On the Border Between Lies and Truth
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Modern Body
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Modern Body
Simon Critchley: ‘The idea that we live in a modern world is debatable.’
Simon Critchley: ‘The idea that we live in a modern world is debatable.’
Rafael García Santos: ‘The best restaurant, the one that is creating the gastronomy of today, is McDonald's.’
Rafael García Santos: ‘The best restaurant, the one that is creating the gastronomy of today, is McDonald's.’
Are We Talking about Gastronomy or Democratisation?
Are We Talking about Gastronomy or Democratisation?
Post-gastromania
Post-gastromania
Kafka and the Critique of Bureaucracy
Kafka and the Critique of Bureaucracy
An Abyss Called Kafka
An Abyss Called Kafka
Franz Kafka Between Languages
Franz Kafka Between Languages
An Exaltation of Spring in Seville
An Exaltation of Spring in Seville
João Penalva: The Ephemeral Language of the Streets
João Penalva: The Ephemeral Language of the Streets
Between Artificial Unconsciousness and Machina Sapiens
Between Artificial Unconsciousness and Machina Sapiens
Hal Foster: The Positive Barbarism of Art
Hal Foster: The Positive Barbarism of Art