Cruising Pavilion: Architecture, Dissident Sex and Cruising Cultures maps the spatial logic of gay cruising as an architectural and urban phenomenon, tracing how sexual subcultures have quietly rewritten the libidinal cartography of the modern city.
About This Book
From the appropriated park or public restroom to the purpose-built bathhouse or sex club, cruising has always been an act of spatial negotiation — and this book treats it as such. Assembling critical writing at the intersection of queer theory, urban history, and architectural discourse, Cruising Pavilion constructs a typology of spaces produced by primarily gay subcultures, including the virtual territories opened up by geosocial dating apps. It situates these spatial practices within a longer lineage of artistic avant-gardes, arguing that dissident sexuality has been a persistent — if unacknowledged — force in shaping how cities are inhabited and imagined. Essential reading for anyone working at the boundary of queer urbanism and architectural theory.
Key Features
- 432 pages of critical essays, curatorial texts, and visual documentation spanning queer spatial practice and architectural theory
- Edited by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou
- Follows a curatorial project that travelled from Paris to Venice, New York, Fire Island, and Stockholm
- Published by Spector Books, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How cruising cultures have produced a distinct and largely undocumented typology of urban and architectural spaces
- The relationship between sexual subcultures and the appropriation of ostensibly public sites — parks, streets, restrooms — as sites of queer inhabitation
- How geosocial dating apps constitute a new form of virtual spatial practice, extending cruising's spatial logic into digital territory
- The points of intersection between sexual dissidence, artistic avant-gardes, and architectural production across multiple cities and contexts
About the Author
Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou are a Paris-based curatorial duo whose practice spans exhibition-making, publishing, and public programming. Their recent projects include Paris Orbital, a series of events at the Pinault Collection – Bourse de Commerce, and the Conversations series for Paris+ par Art Basel in October 2023.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 432
- Dimensions: 16 × 23 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783959057455
- Publisher: Spector Books
- Publication Date: 2023
Perfect For: Architects and urbanists interested in queer spatial theory, researchers in gender and sexuality studies, curators and critics working at the intersection of art, architecture, and social dissent.