Fredy Massad

Crítica de Choque

The book “Crítica de Choque”, has two editions: the first is Argentine co-edited jointly by Bisman Ediciones and the University of Palermo (2017) and the second was made by Cut Ediciones (2018) in Barcelona, Spain . It is the third book written by the renowned Argentinean critic settled in Barcelona, Fredy Massad. The work shows the current declining state of architecture, buried under the rubble of the Star System, overcome by the nonsense and cynicism of post-truth, papered by the absurd images on Instagram of architects whose interests rely more on trending than in making architecture.

In this difficult and gloomy panorama, neither the awards, nor the magazines, nor the emblematic buildings or the sacred architects can be saved. However, the content not only shows the current architectural panorama, but in some way accuarately portrays the current state of global society very well, drowned in populism, fake news, fanaticism, social networks, consumerism and goodism, but lacking in criticism, moral, truth and values. It´s from this panorama that Massad denounces how criticism has fallen alongside the star architects, that it has become complacent, and has distorted its mission and lost its direction.

The author explains, that architecture publications did not question the direction of architecture, and -as an opportunistic move- they simply changed their discourse; without taking blame, they decided to turn their backs on star architects and their iconic buildings, in order to defend an architecture that idealizes and promotes poverty. The main reason why "Crítica de choque" deserves credit for is its exposing -and supporting with facts- the demagoguery, cynicism and manipulation of the post-truth era.

Its main conclusion is that criticism must gain its credibility back, by shying away from any kind of charlantanlry and preposterous rethoric games. Criticism has to be reappraised, reformulating its practice through the possibilities offered by new media and maintining a sound commitment to intellectual honesty.

This book should necessarily be read by all those who want to remove the blindfold preventing us from looking straight into current reality and seeing through it. Massad's incendiary words fearlessly rebuke the weaknesses of the current scenario of global architecture and the myths constructed by many architects.