HooT* Spring issue invites Giselle’s Books and the British collective Inventory.
On Hoot proposal, they had two long conversations about their publishing projects, happenings, travels, their past and future but more significantly their present. If these interviews help getting closer to their enterprise as an art collective, it definitely uncovers their ability to moving through times with an uncanny vision. From Inventory’s eponymous journal, their football match riot on the endroit in London to their exhibition a doctrine of scattered occasions at Giselle’s Books in 2021, this issue of Hoot helps connecting the dots of the missing parts in Inventory confidential but dissident and subversive practice.
Founded by Lucas Jacques-Witz and Ryder Morey-Weale as an exhibition space, Giselle is conceived as a vehicle for interaction focusing on the gathering and dispersal of artistic practices. It currently operates in Marseille as Giselle’s Books, an archival library of artists’ books and art writings.
Inventory was founded in 1995 by Damian Abbott, Paul Claydon and Adam Scrivener. Known for the fourteen issues of their eponymous journal (1995 – 2005), their most recent publication, The Counsel of Spent, was published by Book Works in 2018. Their most recent solo exhibition was at Giselle’s Books, Marseille (2021).
Graphic design by Traduttore, traditore and Cédric Elmerich Co-published by Gufo and Giselle’s Books
*HooT is a printed conversation, a transcribed dialogue with a worker in the field of art, a collective around the notion of work as an activity, method, environment, symbol and necessity. Each issue will be transcribed according to the language used in the conversation
The question that motivates this issue is simple: how come so many of us outside the settler colony called the United States of America, are so deeply influenced by and interpret our own contexts through the political ‘software’ created by U.S.-based academics and activists? The goal here is less to disqualify this U.S. political framework, than to demonstrate that the successful ways through which it analyzes its own context may not be as useful when analyzing other situations. Throughout the issue, we aim to reflect on U.S. exceptionalism, including in its own anti-imperialist critique (Zoé Samudzi), on what Blackness misses when it is mostly centered on African American espitemologies (Cases Rebelles), on transfused U.S.-forged concepts of “brownness” or “BIPOC” (Sinthujan Varatharajah), on illusory attempts to translate struggles into (U.S.) English (Bekriah Mawasi), on the complete blind spot casteism constitutes in this U.S. ‘software’ (Shaista Aziz Patel & Vijeta Kumar), on the need for a pluriversal approach of queerness (Rahul Rao)… Even within the U.S., the political framework that categorizes all people (from Indigenous people to white settlers) coming from the south of its border as “Latinx” needs to be problematized as settler colonial creations (Floridalma Boj Lopez). With this issue, we aim at doing just that: not letting go of the precious epistemologies U.S.-based thinkers have brought us, but simply decentering them to favor the pluriversality of our influences.
The cover was created for us by Michael DeForge and the News from the Fronts section brings us reflections on Taiwan (Szu-Han Ho & Meng-Yao Chuang), Cameroon (Ethel-Ruth Tawe), the Ainu (Kanako Uzawa) and Fusako Shigenobu’s political legacy, a few weeks before her release from prison in Japan (May Shigenobu).
After more than two years of instability triggered by the pandemic, apocalyptic visions are becoming a lived reality, as the effects of climate breakdown rapidly increase and failing societal and economic structures reveal the fragility of our modern industrial way of life. Cracks in the system are becoming chasms. So much has been revealed, both the light and the dark, that we have no true sense of what has been set into motion.
What does living in an unfolding apocalyptic reality look like? The stories in Volume 3: Living with the Unknown explore this question through four themes—Initiation, Ashes, Roots, and Futures—moving from the raw unknowing of transformation to a place of rooted possibility. We commissioned new work from writers, artists, photographers, and poets, inviting them to respond to these themes. Within these pages you’ll experience fallen leaves, emerging cicadas, changing Arctic landscapes, reflections on motherhood and beauty, the kinship among trees, inward migrations, and imagined post-apocalyptic realities.
Contributors: Anna Badkhen, Juan Bernabeu, Sheila Pree Bright, Sydney Cain, Camille T. Dungy, Azadeh Elmizadeh, Anisa George, Amitav Ghosh, Rebecca Giggs, Ann Hamilton, Daisy Hildyard, Linda Hogan, Daehyun Kim (“moonassi”), Robin Wall Kimmerer, J. Drew Lanham, Andri Snær Magnason, Ben Okri, Martin Shaw, Suzanne Simard, Jake Skeets, Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Terry Tempest Williams, Alexis Wright, and Kiliii Yüyan.
Since time immemorial dirt has been conceived of as both out of place matter, along the understanding offered by Mary Douglas, as well as a tool of oppression. Through a far reaching treatment of dirt and the system of relations this word implies, this issue embarks on a quest for perspective in our understanding of human and more-than-human relations.
DIRT then becomes an opportunity to wonder about dirt in all its forms. What falls under the scope of DIRT? How is this concept used and to whose benefit? What should we change in both our conceptions of, as well as our relations to, dirt? What imaginations of dirt open up new speculative insights? And especially, what dirt will we leave behind us?
Attending to these and many more fascinating questions, the ten contributors to this issue explore the possibilities of dirt as a transient category. DIRT thus maps a constellation of approaches through which we may conceive of dirt and negotiate our relationship with it. Featuring interviews, reviews, authorial work and poetic treatments, this issue approaches DIRT as both a natural and cultural phenomenon.
Introducing the issue are the words and images of Anna Patzak, whose oneiric poems evoke a revelry of childhood memories and sensory experiences of scavenging dirt. Following hand in hand, Niels Gercama’s Ibuprofen is a tale of blurring boundaries, in which the daily grind of childhood is spent among all kinds of dirt and adulthood hovers around like a ghostly presence, prying into our world with its intrusive fingers.
In Hardnekkig vuil by Lies Defever, dirt becomes a metaphor for the childhood memories of a family’s colonial history. Through the ruins of a personal archive, we are ushered into the intimate, entangled present of a life in decay. The bodily dimension of dirt introduced by Defever is taken up by Seline Westerhof in De Walgelijke Vergankelijkheid van de Mens. This review of Sally Mann’s What Remains (2000), discusses the photographer’s work on a US body-farm, an establishment for the scientific study of decomposing human bodies. In her treatment of Mann, Westerhof focuses on both the beauty of bodily decay as well as its many regenerative potentials. Foregrounding the issue of soil, Westerhof reminds us of the freedom that is to be found in foregoing the dictatorship of perfection and control we demand of life and terrestrial bodies.
The issue of control is a central tenet of Annanova van Kanten’s The Devil’s Advocate: The Ethics of Consensual Cannibalism. In this thought provoking essay, van Kanten introduces us to the legal gap in which a case of modern day, consensual cannibalism fell in the early 2000s. By exploring the historical origins and etymology of cannibalism, van Kanten identifies this practice as originating from a process of marked othering deeply imbricated within histories of coloniality and power. In her advocating in favour of consensual cannibalism, the author makes a clever use of the theories proposed by Hobbes, Bentham and Berlin, in order to reflect upon the issues of power, consent, disgust and the right to personal determination in present society.
The second essay of this issue, Soil Entanglements, presents us with an analysis of the documentary Kiss the Ground (2020). In her critical take on the narrative proposed by the film, Emily Rhodes makes the case for a more aware appreciation of earthly soils and their needs. Proposing to understand this more-than-human category as being composed of living organisms, and of humans as being themselves humus, Rhodes foregrounds the work of Rosa Marie Mulder in Art as Humus. Through a framework informed by the work of Donna Haraway and Vandana Shiva, Mulder reviews artistic efforts that exemplify the significance of composting as both a speculative and practical practice, thus providing an inspiring range of interactions between more-than-human species and humanity.
These interactions and the set of relations stemming from them are the basis of Semâ Bekirović’s work. In her interview with Simulacrum, the Amsterdam based artist and curator discusses her approach to dirt, as well as her method and artistic practice. Focusing on interspecies communication and the need to accept our own reality as beings made of dirt, Bekirović encourages us to conceive of dirt as a transient space of generative practice.
Likewise oriented towards dirt’s positive potential for present and future practices, is Lizan Freijsen’s conception of dirt. In this last contribution, the artist and designer discusses with Simulacrum her life-work with molds, fungi and stains. Sharing details of her passion for these more-than-human organisms, Freijsen closes this issue by reminding us of the importance of ruins and their necessity for building the future, spurring us to think well and deeply about what kind of dirt we should leave behind.
MANARÒT [axe in Trentine dialect] is a literary magazine that aims to give a platform to young authors from Trentino-Alto Adige and South Tyrol, bringing to light influences between different worlds and languages, Italian and European.
This special issue, guest edited by writer, curator and sound artist Frédéric Acquaviva, is the very first comprehensive publication on Lettrist magazines. It describes, shows and contextualizes all issues of all 119 magazines created between 1946 and 2016 in, or in connection to, Lettrism – this vibrant and dynamic French avant-garde movement whose publishing adventures and efforts have, until OEI #92–93, been far too little known.
Dedication:
During his brief editorship of Impulse magazine, Peter Day inspired us with his activism and advocacy for contemporary art. Peter died on May 29, 1990, just before this issue was to go to press. He wrote the dedication that follows:
He wrote under variants of his forename: Shaunt Basmajian. Shant Basmajian. Sha(u)nt Basmajian. He died on January 25, 1990, aged thirty-nine, and this publication of one word works is dedicated to him.
He had promised to contribute to it, but never had time to submit a piece. In his self-effacing and humble way he would have apologized profusely for this.
Our personal acquaintanceship was short. We had talked on the telephone a couple of times and met twice. He was modest about his own work, overly so, and surprised that others were interested in it.
The last time we met he gave me a book, not one of his, but a collection of works by Marlene Mountain. It was inscribed: “To Brian from Marlene”. He said I should have it.
Sha(u)nt had been given the collection by his colleague Brian David J(o(h)n)ston. Her work was unknown to me. It was Pissed Off Poems and Cross Words (1986). She was a great poet, Shaunt said, someone overlooked and neglected. May day, 1990. l Peter Day
Introduction:
It has been a year since our last issue – and for us, like much of the world, it was a year of dramatic transitions and new beginnings.
Here, briefly, is the story: Last winter, after 15 years as the Executive Editor of Impulse, Eldon Garnet transferred his duties to Peter Day. Peter began selecting One Word Works from the many artists, writers, musicians and photographers featured in this special issue. His untimely death, in the midst of production several months later, threw the magazine into grief, shock and disarray. After much dedicated effort by long-time editors Brian Boigon, Judith Doyle and Carolyn White, the issue was recovered, bit by bit.
I accepted the Executive Editorship late last Fall. There was no question that Impulse would resume its publication with Peter’s One Word Works. It is presented not only with some pride, as a testimony to his vision and talent, but also as a reminder of the magazine’s resilience and collaborative nature.
During its 20 years of publication, Impulse has always stood for creativity and change – and this commitment will continue. To mark this new phase of revitalization and renewal, Associate Editor Gordon Lebredt and I have decided to rename the magazine. Beginning with our next issue, Impulse becomes M5V Magazine. Look for it in September.
–David Clarkson
Condition note: the cover might be in worn conditions due to its long-term storage
Locomotion is a one-off travel zine with contributions from art-related actors, engaging with modes and troubles of travel. Featuring contributions by Samar al Summary, Fully Funded Residencies, Burak Taşdizen, Azar Pajuhandeh, Ipek Burçak, Ada Karayel and Eren Ileri. It is a wandering around (im)mobilities of non-humans, artist residencies as a way of survival, road and driving memories, heatwaves and meltings, and commercial space travel.
Locomotion is designed by Ada Karayel, and co-faciliated by Eren Ileri. Illustrations are made by Goodnewsforbadguys.
The magazine comes with a sticker set; a fly and the Locomotion logo.
From Editor’s and Publisher’s Note:
“…When things started to resemble sci-fi dystopia, the absurdity of writing applications for artist residencies at that time has triggered us to have a look at the issue of traveling more deeply and we found ourselves digging up different holes that leave threads for you to connect…”
“…Before we came to the idea of making a magazine, we were speculating on various issues entangled with travel: the materiality of roads, and their related social meanings, debates that can be categorized as anti-travel or travel skepticism and slowing down, inactivity or motionlessness, and also the luxury of not-to-travel by choice…”
“…Since this publication took its start with the pandemic, attentiveness towards some of the matter that are partly in our bodies, and to others that are not, brought us to the word locomotion, which means not just the motion of the human and the living but also of the non-living and the non-human, of which you will find pieces scattered all over the magazine.”
Double 42 – Breaking Point | “If you study the root causes of business disasters, over and over you’ll find this predisposition toward endeavors that offer immediate gratification.”
– Clayton M. Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.
Four covers: Cover 1: Photography by Brianna Capozzi, Styling by Marie Chaix. Sunglasses by Balenciaga. Cover 2: Photography by Johnny Dufort, Styling by Akeem Smith. Saint Laurent and Anthony Vaccarello. Cover 3: Photography by Liv Liberg, Styling by Lotta Volkova. Chanel, D’heygere and Falke. Cover 4: Photography by Tim Elkaïm, Styling by Charlotte Collet. Givenchy, Lemaire, Miu Miu and bag by Celine by Hedi Slimane.
Double is a fashion magazine offering an original and transversal point of view on the spirit of our times.
Double has an already established format: a portfolio – the most important rendezvous of the magazine with an the artist-photographer as a guest of honour; an ABC with texts written by famous journalists from the arts and cinema; a fashion section created by internationally respected photographers and renowned stylists.
