Ex-votos in lourdes: contested materiality of miraculous healings

ABSTRACT

The modern Marian shrine in Lourdes (southern France) attracts six million pilgrims every year. While the site is known worldwide for the miracles that occur there, the dominant official discourse hardly recognizes people's miraculous experiences. This ethnographic study focuses on ex-votos, the religious objects by which pilgrims offer their thanks to Mary for working a miracle. These are situated on the contested boundary between pilgrims' lived religion and officially prescribed religion at the Lourdes site. The article aims to understand what power politics are at stake in the handling of ex-votos as well as what motives pilgrims have to leave offerings at the site. This is illustrated by the in-depth analysis of the story of one ex-voto that also shows that the bonds within families, and between families and Mary, are crucial elements of the stories told. By offering an ex-voto, pilgrims not only remember Mary, but also their family and ancestors.     

The Young Experimentalists

Experimental architecture in Italy began to take a new form in the 1990s when young architects, who were embracing new digital technologies, also began to go abroad to study and practise in greater numbers. Anna Baldini outlines a fecund strand in Italian architecture which, while no longer wholly new or youthful, retains its vitality. She highlights, in particular, the contributions of: Avatar Architettura, Gianluca Brini, Elastico spa+3, Exposure Architects, Giuliano Fausti, Luisa Fontana, Giorgio Goffi, ian+, Iotti+Pavarani Architetti, Fabrizio Leoni, ma0/emmeazero, Antonella Mari, Metrogramma, Open Building Research (OBR), RoccAtelier, studio.eu and Vulcanica Achitettura. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

French Rationalism: A Broken Tradition

From the golden era of 1960s Rationalism to the present Inquietude Lucide, Joseph Abram describes the Rationalist tendencies in French architecture. Once dominated by the spectres of Le Corbusier and Auguste Perret, the rational was deeply embedded in French tectonic culture. Despite the current reassertion of the rational, the future, as Abram explains, appears less certain. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.