Dolores Palacios, Federico Soriano

NECESSARY EDITORIAL PROJECTS

All the guest speakers and panelists at Mundaneum attend each and every one of the activities and debates held throughout the entirety of this event. This is a particular feature of Mundaneum, which enables students and audiences to interact with them in a direct way. Mundaneum is by no means the kind of event where a speaker comes, delivers their lecture and waves goodbye. Allowing this interaction, meetings become dialogues that extend over lunch and dinner - instead of a series of monologues supported by silent images. All subjects open up heterogeneous and open conversations, reflecting the diversity of approaches and commitments to architecture.

When we fiercely undertook the publication of the book "Fisuras de la Cultura Contemporánea", we barely knew about the complexities that such a project might entail. We wanted that publication to convey that strong optimism that was driving us. Although it is difficult to put into print a dialogue where dissimilar views gently meet, we somehow managed to do it by forcing a homogenous outline of the published work, which would allow cross-readings, find references or contradictions among the participants and encourage readers to form their own opinions.

The book compiles the views of 60 architects and critics -from well-established professionals to fresh graduates with a promising career ahead-coming from three different continents, who speak different languages, face different issues and operate through different approaches. From large scale urban projects to small scale buildings. From critical and theoretical texts to essays on environmental research. Each participant has contributed with a written critical reflection, which is accompanied by three built projects and a project submitted to a competition. We were aiming at displaying in a straightforward manner their actual concerns about the world and the current state of architecture. We wanted those texts and images to resonate with each other, discovering similarities and differences, to be words of a virtual conversation. Architecture is scattered in self-referential dissertations and a competition of publicity images. This has had a dramatic impact on architectural production and has pushed into the background social and political questions, which actually are the ultimate forces behind dwelling and building. Images are infinite, evanescent, provisional, ethereal. They become immediately outdated. They are deceitful and lie, surrounded by an aura of jealousy. They end up merely talking about themselves, in an endless dialogue that comes full circle. They can do nothing when confronted to projects related to the unresolved issues of a neighbourhood or a group suffering from serious shortcomings. When this apparently fragile nature surfaces, it shouldn't be eliminated or erased as it is showing -to those who are willing to listen- how to live and make the most of their most positive features.

Summary image of the publication made for the 20th Anniversary of Mundaneum.
 
It was essential to build a well-structured system which would allow a full understanding of each particular situation and the desires of each one involved. The editorial team of Fisuras is small and it is not a production machine used to working with a large amount of material. The management of the book took a long time, just like the processing of a project and working on the design of an architectural object does. However, it was absolutely worth it. A limited hardcover edition was made to be handed to the participants - something which meant an additional complication. Lastly, taking care of the shipment of books and ensuring they would correctly reach their destinations represented an additional task. Currently, the management of direct sales from our website or platforms like Amazon enables us to be linked with many distant places. This editorial project has been recognized with the recent award for publications from the XV International Architecture Biennale 2020 of Costa Rica, organized by the Association of Architects of Costa Rica. This recognition has filled with satisfaction both the editors and the editorial team. This award proves that there are no minimum sizes in architecture: even the tiniest speck of digital dust can become a key reference to transform our world.

We are recalling this now because we can recognize the same energy that drove us then in the publication of this first issue of MondoNostrum magazine. We are absolutely aware of the huge effort that must be put in order to guarantee that a necessary project, as this magazine is, will keep the stamina to stay active for the long run.

Onwards!