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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
MASSA III - Land
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Editors: Keren Christina Mendjul, Lior Orgad & Eli Keller
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Both origin and edge, beginning and end, ‘land’ can be seen as an abstraction on one hand, and as the most material of elements on the other. Its investigation requires a search for our origins, since land holds within it not only the ruins and memories of past cultures, but also the building materials of a future to come. As such, land allows more than a glimpse into the past, an observation into the present or a prediction of the future, but rather affords the examination of an the absolute edge, at the limit beyond which, and beyond land’s opaqueness, one cannot observe.
Whether one discusses the ‘land,’ ‘earth,’ ‘territory,’ ‘soil,’ or ‘ground,’ this concept presents various interpretations which serve as a bedrock for the understanding of both physical and existential space. Architecture - a discipline that encapsulates within it all of those interpretations – finds itself required to create a relation and an understanding of the land as an instrument, an origin, a resource, an inspiration or a base: every architecture is built from the earth and is rooted within it; every architecture entails the capacity to create space but also a territory and an identity; every architecture finds itself in a struggle with the forces of the earth - the power of its pull, its memory, its resources, its ability to destroy and disrupt whatever lays on its surface; every architecture creates a relationship with the multiplicity of the land’s meanings, as it simultaneously represents those meanings. The land’s graphic, spatial and textual expressions find themselves bound to this multitude: from the most pragmatic images in which land is represented in territorial maps, setting arbitrary national borders as if they were natural, or as a simplified, impenetrable hatch appearing at the bottom of every architectural section; through biblical tales and historical, philosophical or political texts and poetic descriptions, which assign to the land a human, existential and ethical quality; and ending with geological sections and seismographic analyses, representing the layers of time and matter that exceed the human scale, while exposing the fact that the earth - despite its static appearance - is a vibrant mass, always in dynamic motion, with a force of its own.
The ‘LAND’ issue of the journal ‘MASSA,’ aims to examine this concept in its various appearances and meanings, while focusing on its relation to the understanding of space. We are looking for scholarly and creative texts, visual projects, and other proposals that aim to engage the multiplicity of meanings that the land encompasses, and offer unique interpretations in regards to the conflicted and controversial local context of the land of the people who express themselves as Israeli or Palestinian, and its surroundings. Whether through spatial, legislative, political, visual or ethical lenses, to name only a few, ‘LAND’ asks to examine, expose and discuss the various ways in which the land itself, supposedly universal, simple and legible, disrupts the boundaries imposed on it by human cultures, and finds unique expressions in the manners by which we grasp, formulate, represent, conceive and produce our surroundings.
GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSIONS:
A. Written proposals will be evaluated based on a 500 word abstract. The abstract will contain information about the proposed submission’s content, the approx. length of the text, a bibliography on which the article will be based upon and a list of images, if included, with their appropriate credit.
B. Visual proposals - drawings, comics, photographs and more - will be evaluated based on a portfolio sent as a .PDF file or, if you have an online portfolio, you can send us a link to the site. Sketches for new projects may be sent as well.
C. All proposals will be submitted as .PDF files. The name of the file will contain the name of the article/project and the name of the writer/artist.
D. Once the abstract is accepted, authors will be asked to provide the article within a month.
E. Acceptable languages for the abstracts are: Hebrew and English, final articles can be published in Arabic.
Please submit all abstracts, portfolios and sketches to the following e-mail:
Until Monday, the 3rd of December, 2018
Write the content, name of issue, and author within the "subject" line.
[Example: Abstract for "Land" issue_Steven Stevenson]