A Magazine No C: Curated by Hussein Chalayan

Coffee cup reading appeals to the imagination. IS about immigration. In countries where stimulating fantasy is part of the culture, children from an early age on are initiated in the art of coffee cup reading by grandmothers, aunts, women. It is an exercise in thinking, perceiving, imagining. Looking for words to say the unspeakable, writing depictions and picturing stories, predicting the future and imagining things to be when you don't know the whole picture.

Hussein Chalayan has his roots in such a culture. And he was a good pupil. What he 'sees and reads' - and appropriates - in the coffee cup is a paradoxical comment on how we choose to perceive things. NoC shows his fascination for transitional states such as travelling, anger, love, growth, ageing, parenthood, meditation, loss. Or for aeroplanes, airports, transactional places. For children who fantasize about a war or who have really lived through one. For the way a blind person sees and silence becomes audible. For music as an image and the way an incidence of light can change our perception of a face, a scenery. NoC is about how we perceive something when some senses are missing, about what we don't see, the blind spots, the intangible elements.

Read NoC as a manifesto, a declaration of love, a fashion magazine, a diary, a prediction, a scenery, a piece of music or a poem. NoC is all this and more. Because we invite you to fill in the blind spots with your imagination.

NoC: a magazine as a transitional moment.