ABSTRACT
Anthropophagy, or the concept of devouring the other, has had different connotations and rhetorical functions throughout modern Brazilian history. This concept inspired multiple cultural and artistic practices interested in rethinking the concept of otherness and of cultural domination, being particularly relevant for modern avant-garde cultural practices and contemporary post-colonial theories. Seeking to define an identity distinct from other countries in the international panorama, Brazilian artists pursued the subversion of meanings, not only through abstract operations, but also through embodied encounters with the artwork interpreting the theories of philosopher Merleau-Ponty. The later works of Lina Bo (1914–1997) seem to translate these subversive encounters into the specific medium of architecture, putting the body and the local culture of the Brazilian northeast at the center of her architectural and socio-political explorations and aspirations. I argue that Bo’s project for the Social Service of Commerce (SESC) Pompeia in São Paulo places and displaces the human body, intentionally un-grounding it and generating an ambiguous perception of spatial and temporal relationships. The architect introduces multiple and contrasting sensorial and symbolic references to the culture of historically excluded populations in Brazil, fostering the embodied architectural experience of otherness and the subversion of history, a practice that can be defined as anthropophagic phenomenology.
