The city as a corpus: body mods, non-architecture, and the sense production

Authors

  • Fernanda Coutinho Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro
  • Denise da Costa Oliveira Siqueira Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ
  • Denise Portinari Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4013/fem.2014.162.04

Abstract

Understanding the urban environment as a “pulsing” locus of socio-political resistance, this paper intends to link the cuts made in the buildings by the architect and artist Gordon Matta-Clark with the cuts in the body promoted by body modification supporters, as one of the communication urban phenomena of the “style tribes.” The aim of this work is to analyze how such insubordinations to the organization of the city as well as to the docility of the bodies offer a possibility of construction that effectively undergoes destruction, and also its communication. Regarding the methodological issues in this essay, we are proposing a study from two different perspectives that can dialogue with each other: an inquiry constructed on a bibliographical and documentary analysis about these interventions promoted by the architect, as well as a field work in body modification in São Paulo. Our observations are founded on the readings of Walter Benjamin, Simmel, Mauss and Le Breton; authors who view the city and the body as socially and culturally constructed.

Keywords: city, body, communication, body modification, transfiguration.

Author Biographies

Fernanda Coutinho, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro

Doutoranda e mestre em Artes e Design pela PUC-Rio. Graduada em Comunicação pela PUC-Rio. Bolsista do CNPq e filiada aos grupos de pesquisa Barthes e Corps: corpo, representação e espaço urbano.

Denise da Costa Oliveira Siqueira, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - UERJ

Parecerista ad hoc.

Professora do programa de pós-graduação em Comunicação da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Doutora em Ciências da Comunicação (ECA/USP),  com estágio pós-doutoral em Sociologia (Université Paris-Descartes). Pesquisadora do CNPq e líder do grupo de pesquisa Corps: corpo, representação e espaço urbano.

Denise Portinari, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro

Psicanalista, Doutora em Psicologia Clínica (PUC-Rio). Docente do Departamento de Artes, Design e Arquitetura da PUC-Rio.

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Published

2014-09-02

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2014): May/August

Section

Articles

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