Accattone is a dedicated space for architecture documents: an interview, a visual essay, a drawing, are laid out as fragments of a montage transversal to the issue. Contents are manipulated mostly through their visual condition. From their sheer confrontation, several themes emerge. The implicit, allusive character of the analogy is preferred to the over-determination of the text, especially of the essay format. Exploring these editorial possibilities is an attempt to go beyond the simplistic assumption that only text-based magazines are "critical" and that our visually-oriented cultural condition is necessarily un- or post-critical.Away from the fast and oblivious mechanism of production-consumption of the web, the printed format and its slow periodicity combine the characteristics of the work-in-progress with the finiteness of the object.

 

Accattone #2 draws on several themes from the first issue — material shifts, models and model-like buildings, the role of images in the design process — to address specific methods and approaches in contemporary architecture which challenge established codes: bricolage, minor architecture, personal narratives and collections. In the montage, each contribution resonates with the others, through analogies and faux amis, experimentations on editorial devices and shared positions towards reality, history and representation.

 

With documents by Aurélien Froment, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Baukunst, Manuel Montenegro, René Heyvaert, Jean Renaudie, Studio Tom Emerson at ETH, 6a architects, Good Times & Nocturnal News, Eric Lapierre, Brandlhuber+, Erica Overmeer, Martinez Barat Lafore.

 

The launch of Accattone #2 took place on September 5th from 5 to 9pm at Bld. Barthélémy 20, 1000 Brussels. It was also presented at Artists Print at the BRASS on September 12th and 13th.