DAMN° #88

DAMN° is an independent quarterly print magazine and digital platform that explores opinions on contemporary culture. 

In this issue:

We look at the vigour and exhilaration of the Olympics – the ultimate summer stage for mastering the abilities of able-bodied and disabled athletes for global glory.

But while the world’s best athletes have unique and specific relationships with their bodies, the rest of us, at least to some extent, are also mastering its possibilities and pleasures as a way to delve deeper into ourselves.

So after the hunt for Gold, we slow down to consider what both mental and physical intimacy brings us.  In culture, intimacy is both an inspiration and a tool – it brings a bodily lust for life that usurps all the political chaos to create beauty and hope; it toys with what really matters … what it even means to be human.

From the new hospital by Herzog & de Meuron that lets parents sleep with their children, to the transparent façades of Shigeru Ban, we look at how contemporary architects are softening their ideals for a more intimate effect. 

We also dive into how the modernist aesthetic, with its emphasis on efficiency and functionality, crucially narrowed our embrace of masculinity. This was crystalised in an exhibition earlier this year by Formafantasma during Milan Design Week. The design-duo tapped into a worrying characteristic of the contemporary - the broadening gap between the public façade and the private reality, something manifested in their recent work through an acknowledgment of the gap between the rules of design and the domestic experience. 

A twist on intimacy is revealed through a peek into the photography collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish, currently on show at the V&A in London. At this moment in time, the work can be enjoyed less as a celebration of sexual freedom and more as an affirmation of the gender conversation, and of giving space to marginalised voices.

Because when our most intimate public expressions are confined by physical and political forces — from female soccer players in burqas to disabled athletes competing for glory on the international sports-stage – the friction this engenders creates meaningful and exquisite results.  

It also reminds all of us how essential it is to bravely put our most vulnerable side on the start line.

- Gabrielle Kennedy