Croco Magazine 1#Issue

// ISSUE 1

ONLINE

CONTRIBUTORS FOUNDER / EDITOR IN CHIEF Maria Ciurana ART DIRECTOR Maria Ciurana

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR LONDON Sylwia Grzegórzko CONTENT CREATORS / WRITERS Sylwia Grzegórzko Ander Zulaika Fran Cirujeda Carlos León Boris Ponton María Ciurana Miguel Suarez Carla Bayo Miriam Esteban Alejandro Rutz Samuel Mayoral GRAPHIC DESIGNER Maria Ciurana TRANSLATORS Carla Bayo Beatriz García Sylwia Grzegórzko

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WEB ImaginAds ILLUSTRATORS Julia Modesta Sara Virumbrales Prince Jedet COMMUNITY MANAGER ImaginAds Maria Ciurana SPECIAL THANKS Debbie Haddon-Cave

Copyright is reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited.

Croco Magazine uses all materials with permission from owners.

2015 CROCO MAGAZINE

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COVER

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PHOTOGRAPHER Anthony Lycett MODEL Mickey Woodbridge

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ILLUSTRATOR Julia Modesta

STAFF

Ander Zulaika

Carla Bayo

Julia Modesta

María Ciurana

Born in 1985, Ander Zulaika is a Spanish Architect⁄ Interior Designer. Having lived between San Sebastian and Madrid, now he is based in London working as an interior designer.

He combines his work with his passion to explore the city of London. He would like share his love for architecture and music, discovering for us, all the curious and interesting stuff.

Talkative, very talkative.

Restless communicator. She likes to undertake as much as risk and that’s the reason why she is here. Finding out about interesting topics related to art, music and fashion, is her thing. Also writing and translating them into English so everyone can read us. For her any movement that leads to a change is fascinating enough to publish here.

Julia is a Spanish illustrator.

She studied advertising and graphic design in Alicante and Barcelona. She works as freelance nationwide illustrator in a small studio in Alicante.

Julia loves everything about the bizarre and the wonders of nature in many ways and has collaborated with Croco by illustrating some sections of the magazine.

Mery Ciu, as everyone knows, is a photographer, designer and music passionate. She is a freak of online magazines who loves losing her time exploring new trends.

Beside of that she is a Yogi.

Founder of Croco Magazine, guilty to fool everyone to contribute within her dream. Art is her life.

Javier Loaiza

Adrián Martinez

Miguel Suárez

Sylwia Grzegórzko

Javi is a filmmaker from Cadiz (Spain). Currently based in London. He is inspired by the geometry and the lights-trying to create atmospheres in motion. He is contributing filming interviews, making offs, events - to share everything we love with all Croco-addicts.

Adrian, from Barcelona, is a musicology student and lover of alternative eighties.

In Croco Magazine, music critic, trying to bring into our world the essence of gigs and news about all new and upcoming bands.

Graduated in Audiovisual Communication at the University of Navarre. In recent years, he’s worked as a journalist in mass media and has focused in the audiovisual production. In fact, his short-films have received several awards and have been projected in national and international festivals. In addition, Miguel has published essays, as well as short stories beside other authors. He and Cynthia Rico are the directors of the festival called Horror Online Art. Moreover, Miguel writes about cinema in Croco Magazine.

Sylwia Grzegorzko - Croco’s Content Creator. Trying to embrace everything from music, cinema, art and photography. Outside of Croco, photographer. After many years living in Poland and Spain, currently she is based in London, with which she is totally in love. In meantime she is persuading her childhood dream about being a game developer, devoting each free moment playing the newest game releases.

Fran Cirujeda

Sara Virumbrales

Beatriz García

Ex Rugby player, lover of semiotics, writing and the subculture in general. Carried away for a useless knowledge and the ‘mountain’. Licensed in Audio-visual Communication with Master in Digital Postproduction. He also has a cat, hates getting up early. In Croco he writes about music.

Sara is a young photographer from Madrid, graduated in Fine Arts. Always camera handy.

She loves the city, capturing everything around and giving different meanings to what others see. She works for Croco Magazine illustrating articles with visual sets of photos, collage and words. www.saravirumbrales.com

Beatriz is graduated in Translation and Interpretation (English, French and Spanish languages). She is a music and film lover. Beatriz contributes in Croco Mag translating some articles on Croco’s fanpage, website and Issue.

Boris Ponton

Carlos Leon

Alejandro Rutz

Passionate about fashion thats what defines Boris Ponton. He spent more than fifteen years working in this exciting world where he has held multiples functions. Currently, he combines his work as image consultant editor and fashion editor Croco Magazine.

Carlos is a photographer, filmmaker and producer. Now collaborating with Croco Mag as Content producer in categories like design, photography and architecture. www.carlosleonphotography. com www.instagram.com/carlosleonphoto www.carlosleonphotography. tumblr.com

Alexander Rutz is a Spanish photographer and filmmaker.

Despite his young age he has been nominated for several awards such as the film festival Castilla La Mancha or Vicious Music Awards .

In this issue he Collaborated with Croco Mag with his articule “Concept”.

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Miri Esteban Miri is a fashion stylist and Tumblr queen. Miri is from Spain, Valencia to be exact.

Sometimes she likes to believe that she is a Bollywood princess from Candy land. In this first issue of Croco Miri tells us about fashion, weird models and also about new music talents.

Samuel Mayoral issue 1

Samuel is a twenty seven years old folk from Valencia, Spain.

He is an active psychologist and poetry writer. He collaborates with Croco writing articles related to human knowledge, emotions and philosophy.

More info on www.samuelmayoral.com – or twitter- www.twitter.com/eshache.

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EDITOR’S NOTE We’ve waited a long time for this day, and it’s fina- Presenting whatever it is you do is always worthy lly arrived! Here it is our debut! of merit - that is why I started this magazine - to surround myself with creative people who have a Welcome to our space! passion - people that live for the expression they have within - to build a team as crazy as me and As this is the first official issue, let’s start right give a voice to all those amazing talents out there. from the beginning.

Why Croco? Our name represents what an artist is We would like to offer privileged space to artists deep down inside - the King of the Swamp - lying who have stood by us, because it is always rewarcalmly in order to warm his blood to the perfect ding to look back in order to step forward. temperature. This requires immense patience basking near the shore with his jaws agape - and We have collaborators in Madrid, London and Vajust when he feels the moment in his bones - he lencia that have supported our idea but we would strikes! like to expand our team even more. Therefore, if you are an online magazine freak, you love to wriI believe artists do something similar. We spend a te and you believe that you have something to say long time conceptualizing, seeking inspiration for email submissions@croco.com telling us where new projects, thinking about the development of you see yourself. the idea, its execution, its editing, the brutal ho- On the other hand, if you consider that your piece nesty required to know what the piece has going for is ready for publication, then send us your bio and it, and what it is lacking - and only when we are 8-10 images of your work in low resolution and a truly prepared, in our hearts, are we able to take the memo explaining it. risk and show it to the world.

Let us begin!

CONTENTS

Sacred Bones 10 - 15 El Último Vecino 16 - 17 Björk 18 - 21 Coté Escrivá 22 - 33 Alicia Way 34 - 39 Coworking Spaces 40 - 41 Rowan Newton 42 - 53 Navajillo 54 - 63 Glesson Paulino 64 - 77 Anthony Lycett 78 - 91 Sylwia Grzegórzko 92 - 103 Denisse García 104 - 113 Anne Sophie Cochevelou 114 - 129 Strange Models 130 - 141 Yves Saint Laurent 142 149 The circle of contemporary vampire 150 - 151 Decisions 152 - 153 Concept 154 - 155

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Translation Sylwia Grzeg贸rzko

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SACRED BONES Sacred Bones is a record label that kicked off in 2007 in Brooklyn. It is one of the most exciting new labels of the independent music scene - Brooklyn is just so cool. Its cryptic logo parades a black triangle, encircled by a snake devouring its own tail, with the name of the printed label underneath with the typography in decomposition. Below - a tasteful text, justified on the right, a stroke detailing the basics of the disk.

The main intention of Sacred Bones was to publish music from their own circle of friends and to expose those musical gems from ages past. They focus primarily on vinyl but to not alienate followers as they are also available in digital format. The label has a collective of people who help in various aspects of distribution and promotion. Among them, a filmmaker who directs the video-clips, a manager who prints their great compilations and a multipurpose designer who works on the covers and the official label website and anything else included in promotion.

We can trust that they put the same energy, delicacy and care in the presentation of the albums as the bands put into their music. The Musical styles is eclectic, ranging from dark, experimental electronica to noise and post-punk.

We will introduce you to some of the most brilliant and interesting artists from Sacred Bones.

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ZOLA JESUS

In real life her name is Nika. She began studying Opera but before finishing her studies, she started making experimental recordings of noises in her room. She shows us a bit of her “noise” sounds , framing well the labels dark style, both in its sound and its aesthetics. She also has collaborated with the successful French electronic music band, M83.

Trust is a Toronto-based synthpop group, formed in 2010, and fronted by Robert Alfons and Maya Postepski. Writing about nostalgia and loss, their sound is like a homage to the dark electronic synth sound of the eighties and is combined in perfect symbiosis with Robert Alfons’s soul-piercing vocals.

Maya has a parallel group called Austra and also produces as a solo artist called Princess Century.

PHARMAKON works

Margaret Chardiet was born and raised in New York City. From the age of seventeen, she was heavily involved in the city’s underground experimental music scene.

She describes her drive to make noise music is, in a way, like an exorcism where she is able to express, her “deepseated need/drive/urge/possession to reach other people and make them FEEL something [specifically] in uncomfortable/ confrontational ways.”

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The songs on this album were all written and recorded during a troubled period during in her life with the lyrical themes reflect her loss“Losing everything. Relinquishing control.

Complete psychic abandon. Blind leaps of faith into the fire, walking out unscathed. Crawling out of the pit.”

This amazing album is filled with the densely atmospheric, Industrial Death low-end drones and atonal Power Electronic static, screeching waves.

Her next album, Bestial Burden, was written whilst bedridden in hospital and is a poignant collection of songs - as expected, filled with industrial sounds and is deeply personal - charged with the struggle and the internal conflict which is intensely Chardiet.

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Lust for Youth

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Crystal Stilts

LUST FOR YOUTH

This band from Copenhagen was started by Hannes Norvide and whose first two albums were deemed to be icily lo-fi.

With two new band members including Malthe Fisher who produces and plays guitar, Lust for Youth’s latest album, International, marks a major turn-around, as the album delivers an incredible blast of solid, upbeat, highly produced synth pop akin to the early-to-mid-80s sound of Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys and New Order.

DAVID LYNCH

Eraserhead

David Lynch is one of the best and most extraordinary film directorial talents. He has, however, other, lesser known, facets to his talent such as his incredible ability as a visual artist, musical artist, photographer and painter. Involved with musical projects for a large part of his career, he assisted in scoring his own films.

Sacred bones Records have selected the soundtrack of Eraserhead, his innovative film debut, as by avoiding the use of conventional instruments and using instead, pieces of glass tubing and machinery, it combines elements of surrealism and experimentation creating a wholly unique Lynch sound.

CRYSTAL STILTS

An American post-punk band from Brooklyn, New York City, this group is an worthy heir to Rock’n Roll from the past decade of Psychedelia, Garage and Lo-fi. Their sound, which few can pull off today, incorporates elements of soul, country, and folk. Hopefully they will continue releasing album after album to delight us with.

AMEN DUNES

The project of Damon McMahon began as a collection of improvised songs made in the Autumn of 2006, inside a caravan in upstate New York. After sharing it with a few friends, the tapes were shelved when he moved to China.

However, the tapes found their way to Locust music in Chicago, who released them in 2009. They were received with critical acclaim, which prompting McMahon to move back home and perform live in the US and Europe.

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by Adrián Martínez

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EL ÚLTIMO VECINO

From all the feelings you may have as a human, there’s special one you might find familiar: “The amorousness to one group ”. Yes, I’m talking about what probably happened to you many times ... Whether listening to a song playing on the radio, or discovering a new favourite tune on Spotify.

In this case: El Último Vecino, a really great album by Gerard Alegre.

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Translation Carla Bayo

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He is the one responsible of creating all this in the reclusion of his studio, composing all the songs and instruments and finally putting it into practice with the rest of the group members. Don’t think I’m exaggerating by using the word ‘great album’, since the beginning with the song “Que Mas Da ‘’ Tu No Estas Asustado” the word “admiration” starts to appear and grows with listening of each new song.

One of the pillars of “El Ultimo Vecino” are certainly synthesizers and a good drums in the style of the 80’s. A totally danceable rhythm with notes similar to El Ultimo de la fila, Joy Division, The Drums and wonderful The Smiths.

Since June of 2013, when the disc was released. El Ultimo Vecino has already played in big festivals like Primavera Sound, Fib Benicassim, Vidafestival and is undoubtedly the eighties synthpop group revelation of the year.

As a follower of this Barcelona band, I have occasionally slipped into one of their concerts and I must say, Gerard Alegre is one of the greatest showmen nowadays.

The way he moves in direct and his penetrating gaze on stage, makes him authentic and unique.

It teleports you like a time machine to the past. His live music conveys

the nostalgia we have all had, when hearing a song from the 80’s and suddenly wished to be living at that time.

In December the new album “Tu casa nueva” finally saw the light of day. The second LP of “El Último Vecino”. A great initial dose which sounds fresh without branching off from the main road of the first disc.

by Fran Cirujeda

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“VULNICURA”: THE NEW ALBUM BY issue 1

Björk

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It’s been more than two decades since Icelandic, Björk Gudmundsdóttir, known as Björk, first appeared on the 90’s international music scene. At that moment in time, she would never have thought that, after the release of seven albums, the eighth one would be leaked online, two months away of its official presentation.

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Translation Sylwia Grzegórzko

It is true however, that this latest album seems not to have the force and the ultramodern presumption with which we characterize it.

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Critics after first listening, have not been late in coming forward.

In spite of this, the new work has melodic reminiscences that teleports us back to the successful origins of the Icelandic singer, where everything had a meaning, and was based on the interaction between the nature and the technology.

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One of the reasons the album is raising certain expectations is that it includes two significant collaborations; Arca, famous for his dark techno and Antony Hegarty, a regular in several of her previous works, such as, the successful “Hyper-ballad”.

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m’s official release was March, but surprisingly, the well-known social to announce the dates of concerts (which will be York and other US cities, eat regret) and later on, es, she publicized the d launch of “Vulnicura”.

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ary 19th, the above ed songs were withdrawn the portals that were them.

produce this new piece of her work.

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e days in January 2015 17th,18th and 19th) the om her new album could ed on YouTube, giving notice of the list of songs month of launch of the new “Vulnicura” - according to ial Facebook fan page.

read papers issue 1 Bjรถrk posted this written note in her Fanpage announcing her new album on Facebook.

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The album contains M/M Paris’s artistic and typographic work, and also two portraits of the singer made by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

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What is certain though is that, at least for a few days, we will not be able to enjoy “Vulnicura”, and therefore, we will have to content ourselves with glancing back to reencounter some of the songs that catapulted Björk into becoming one of the great muses of experimental music.

Here is a brief list of some of them.

Debut (1993) – Human Behavior Post (1996) – Army of me Not For Trees (1997) Björk ft Plaid – Lilith Homogenic (1997) – All is full of love Vespertine (2001) – Hidden Place Volta (2007) – Earth Intruders

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by MarĂ­a Ciurana

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COTÉ ESCRIVà Cote Escriva is a Valencian designer and illustrator whose style is strongly influenced by American culture, street art, the world of tattoos and classic animated cartoons. His work fits in with Lowbrow, otherwise known by the name of pop surrealism, a Californian underground artistic movement that hast its cultural roots in punk music, street culture and underground comics.

Cote combines his career as an illustrator with his job as a graphic designer. His work has featured in many international publications including Lamono, Arteuparte and Kult and he has participated in many exhibitions, both collectively and individually, in cities such as Los Angeles, London, Barcelona and Valencia.

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Coté Escrivá participed in a collective exhibition customizing a Kartell’s Lizz chair designed by Piero Lissoni.

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by María Ciurana

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Glitch: about digital fragmentation

ALICIA WAY

Alicia Way, also known as AWay is a young Madrid-based artist graduated in Fine Arts by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She compelted a year of her studies in Aalto University, Helsinki, where she became interested in the relationship between art, design and new technologies. issue 1

She received an MA in Art and Creation in Madrid and is now she’s preparing to begin a new journey in the field of contemporary design, pursuing a Masters in Barcelona. She has participated in several competitions for young artists and independent art markets, also been artist in residence at Espacio Oculto and currently collaborates with Stree2lab.

Eventually she’s been working with the collective Animo X designing sculptures and installations for events, as well as creating designs for Geometrica Studio videomappings.

She has worked with processing to set the screen at MediaLab Prado.

The work presented here is a continuous experimentation of form and space. A search of the boundaries between art and design where network architecture evolves simple designs to dynamic images.

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Translation Sylwia Grzegórzko

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One of the most used techniques to collect lucidity within the dream is the identification of a discordant element in the “real� speech.

In the culture of the image, this dream is perceived as reality and find it almost impossible to fail.

But what would happen if we had a technique that reveals the lie?

The glitch is defined as a coding bug in so small digital system that produces a hallucination and asserts a doubt about the real.

From a microexplotion an aesthetic tecnoplatonic practice is generated in which pixels are in the shadow of what we observe source code is generated. It is the trace of the leak from the virtual to the real. Started by operating

systems began to hide and predict the user to get into the guts of the device through a visual formulation.

The rise of digital material and our transformation into that space generated an aesthetic budding from its cultural content, such as the meme until wearables devices, increased surveillance, virtual reality, we are committed to developing an atmosphere through the digital technological breakthrough on reality.

The glitch ultimately as metaphorical dimension suggests that reality is a computer construct and gives us the possibility of breaking the veil.

What if the current practices of fragmentation of reality (the fragmentation of our reality through the body, identity and privacy) were the introduction of physical and real space in the digital realm?

What changes brought in fact communicate? Sherry Turkle in her book Alone Together suggests that there are less real than before connections in these times of high social connectivity.

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Marshall McLuhan predicted what 40 years ago when he said that “the extension leads to amputation.� In this adaptation process, logical relationships have been affected, characterized by fragility and temporality of some online connections that are established.

Individuals create new networks that connect and disconnect imminent wants and needs that are diluted in flexible and reversible contexts.

Sociability is reconstructed in the form of individualism and community network through finding like minded people in a process that combines virtual interaction (online) and a real interaction (offline). In conclusion, cyberspace has led us to develop new nested concepts that help us understand the relationships that are established and the way we communicate.

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by Ander Zulaika

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With Withthe thefirst firstissue issuein inhand, hand,this thisseems seem like likethe thebest besttime timeto totalk talkabout aboutco-work cospaces.

Atspaces. present, is much working Atthere present, theretalk is m about collaboration between different talk about collaboration between diffe types typesof ofworker, worker,wanting wantingto toshare, share,

Coworking Translation Sylwia Grzeg贸rzko

s ms king much erent

grow, create and seek out something in common. A good way to start is by explaining the reasons behind the need to create and take part in these spaces.

In 2005, Brad Neuberg he came up with the idea of ‘coworking’ whilst working for a start-up. He used the term to describe the physical space and his first site was in a women’s community center, called Spiral Muse, in San Francisco. He struck an agreement to utilize their space during business hours several days a week. The idea didn’t take off, and almost died after one year. However, he moved on to open the “Hat Factory” in San Francisco, a live-work loft that was home to three technology workers, and open to others during the day, and this was much more successful. Brad was also one of the founders of Citizen Space, the first “Work Only” coworking space.

Since Neuberg created the first coworking space, the number of coworking spaces and available seats has roughly doubled each year – it has become a booming industry with swanky new spaces opening up all over the world, offering everything from sun decks to soundproofed meeting rooms!

Currently, the UK is among the most responsive European country to the idea of collaborative working, with a special focus on London. The city leads the coworking market, not only in the large number of coworking places it offers, but also for the variety of places that exist to fit the differing needs among startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers. In March 2012, Google along with several local partners, opened Campus London, a co-working place in East London’s Tech City. It offers seven floors of flexible work spaces and helps multiple startups to grow by hosting weekly mentoring programs, speaker series and many

networking opportunities.

Some people do question the idea - why would anyone want to work in a space if the only thing on offer is a desk and internet connection. The same can be done at home without spending any money. Well, it is an opportunity to network with other sectors and learn something new, every day. It is an environment of cooperation and exchange in which solutions are easier to find and new projects are given a lease of life that might not be possible in a less fertile environment.

To re-iterate - coworking spaces are not mere ’rent a desk’ type places, shared to reduce costs. Although this is true and is a major plus, it is the encouragement of collaboration and exchange of ideas that attracts the best of professionals, making the group as a whole feel comfortable and supported, leading to increased productivity and creativity.

To learn more, there are many websites that give a good close-up on the topic. http://www.deskmag.com/, http://www. sharedesk.net/.

And if you are still in doubt or you want to know if these places are for you, you are warmly welcomed to visit the spaces to see for yourself. Most places offer a free one day pass. You can experience first-hand what it is like to work in that particular environment, talk with fellow co-workers, inform yourself, and even start working directly on that very day, if it suits.

Prices remain affordable, despite the current economic crisis. In London, for example, at @workhubs one can get really good deals starting from £80 for 24 hours per month or unlimited access for £300 per month.

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ROWAN NEWTON Rowan Newton is a painter from South London. His portraits, having stormed through exhibitions from New York to Shanghai, are characterized by complex textures and an inordinate range of colour. We had the great privilege of visiting him in his studio and talking to him about his inspiration, creativity and what it means to be an artist in modern times.

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Which is your favourite comic character?

It was just one moment. I did not even start painting till I left university. My whole life I had spent drawing. I went to university to study Illustration and moved to Greenwich, into a huge flat with really high ceilings.

Probably something obvious, like Wolverine or Spiderman. When I was young, I was really into X-man, so Wolverine is my favourite.

But there is something about Spiderman, his agility, how they used to draw him. Todd Macfarlane - that was the era when I was really into comics.

Then as I grew older, I kind of developed my own style of drawing - how to lead the line etc, but there was still a comic book vibe to it.

Even now, I prefer to draw figures, faces and people rather than landscapes or cars or whatever… which perhaps is a legacy from drawing comic book characters day in, day out, as a child.

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Certainly the earliest stuff I was into was drawing, so illustration appealed to me. There used to be a cool little comic shop in Brixton where I grew up - Acre Lane where my mum and dad used to take me and I just hung out there.

I was into drawing - massively into drawing. I was into cartoons and comics and I would just sit and recreate the pages from the comics, redrawing everything. I would redraw Bart Simpson, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Sonic the Hedgehog...

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What is it that makes the comic medium so interesting to you?

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I couldn’t afford to buy any art, so I just brought a lot of canvases and a lot of cheap paint - painted the canvases, put them up and people seemed to. respond really well to them. It just snow-balled from there really. It just kept escalating and I kept on painting. It’s been a development of over ten years, basically… it has been about 10 years since I started painting

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When did your style come into itself, or have you always painted like this?

What is your reaction to the notion that “The artistic world is full of jealousy and greed”?

It’s an interesting notion. I don’t know if greed is a right word, the right statement. There can be a bit of jealousy. I guess some people really go for it, and make money, maybe over artistic integrity and talent but I imagine it is the same in any industry, you know, from mu-sic to banking. It’s important in your own world to have people around you that you love, and want to build your career for them.

Which famous women inspires you?

Oh WOW! - that’s a good question … famous woman? Zoe Kravitz probably, because I find her face really interesting, and she looks like an exciting character. It’s important that I can communicate with the subject and we are on the same level emotionally and intellectually. A lot of women send their pictures to me and ask me to paint them. They send me a million selfies, taken in front of the bathroom mirror, and it’s not really the point – it’s not the message I’m trying to communicate… so yeah - Zoe Kravitz, her look is thought-provoking, she’s got something creative about her, and she is musician and actress - it’s a fascinating backstory.

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Does the personality of the model come through in your painting, or are they just a vessel for you to fill on the canvas?

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Hmmm, interesting… yeah I think so, hopefully. I mean, all the paintings are communi-cating my own story, my own message…

I definitely use people I feel, understand the story perhaps, or that message, and can relate to something. You know, someone that you are able to sit down, able to talk to for a good couple of hours - about interesting things - maybe a bit too deep, maybe too introspective, - they are all good friends.

Generally, I have to get to know somebody. If it’s someone I have just met or seen on the street or something, we will organize to go for a coffee, for example. I have to connect to the person.

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Many times you have said that you see colours on people’s faces. What colours do you see on yourself?

Me? Oh! I haven’t really looked (laugh). Just recently, I asked somebody - should I try the selfportrait that I haven’t yet done. I don’t know - I try to think how it would look - probably a lot of yellows (laughs) - quite pasty though!

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Is painting your primary source of expression, or do you have other ways of showing yourself?

Yes, painting is the primary one, but I still draw daily – I have always drawn. I’m into poet-ry too, so titles are quite important to me.

I have notes on my phone for possible titles for paintings and things which come into my head - tons and tons of pages of titles, It’s a means of communicating the

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narrative of the painting and what I’m trying to say from within. The work is also about the title so it’s another way I enjoy expressing myself – I take a lot of time in considering the title of a painting.

Is there any other form of art you wish you could do?

It would be pretty cool to be able to play the piano or guitar (laugh). I would be quite happy to be in a rock band - that would be fun!

Do you let music inspire you when you create?

Yes, music is pretty important to me.

How do you know when a painting is finished?

Oh - I get asked this all the time.

I just do! I don’t know - I guess, you could keep going back to it and changing little bits here and there.

My current one has been changed two or three times since I kind of said it was finished – but only little minor bits. I think you just know.

It is a journey. As I said, the whole narrative is in my head and with the emotional journey as I go through the process - I kind of know when it all comes together.

You need to know when to call it a wrap - otherwise, you would keep on making little changes and never finishing it. You want to keep on painting and re-enjoying the process.

You are left with bits and pieces from every single painting what worked, a new technique or method that was particularly pleasing. It represents your communication with the world, and you are eager to get to the next one and do it again… so you just know!

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You hear some artists just can’t have their own paintings on their walls as they would want to change them constantly. Is it the same for you?

Yes - I would be analyzing them all the time, I wouldn’t want to look at them. Even when I go to the exhibitions, I can’t look at them again, but I think that the create drive keeps you producing more and more work. When you look at them, you kind of realize “Oh actually, I could have done this or that, or played more on a particular idea. That’s the drive that makes you keep on going and working to make each painting better.

Do you despise your work sometimes?

Oh, you mean in the process? I do, but never at the end of it. If I am not happy, I keep on painting, because painting is layer upon layer, so I just keep on layering until I’m content. However, there are certainly difficult stages in some paintings - with all of them really. There have been a couple of paintings when it was two, three weeks of hell; not really lik-ing it, thinking perhaps I should scrap the

idea and start anew. But then it can all just kind of come together, in one or two days. You can suddenly find your way with it and it’s a massive relief.

At what point did you decide you were an artist? Was there a specific moment or have you always felt that way?

I don’t recall the point in time when I truly ‘became’ an artist. It’s weird - I was always drawing, like from day one. I was an only child, at home alone a lot, so I just kept myself entertained by drawing all the time. Looking back on it, I never had any plan.

I never thought, when I went to college, I want to be a painter, because I didn’t paint till I left col-lege.I just knew I had to be doing something akin to drawing, and that kind of naturally and organically led to painting, which was nice. I guess - I don’t know maybe when I gave up my part time job? Maybe that was when I could say I ‘became’ an artist - Am I an artist? I paint, I paint. I always say I’m a painter. People assume me like a painter and decorator (laugh).

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What does perfection means to you?

I think you are probably always striving for it. I don’t know.It’s an interesting one. It can hound one a bit perhaps. Maybe one is constantly yearning to do something that is unachievable, and maybe one should just relax and not be too obsessed with perfection or being great at it and just remember to enjoy it.

But, the painting is never quite there. It’s never quite the painting I see in my head or want to achieve so it’s a constant strive for perfection with me… I would be more concerned, in a way, if I did succeed in my quest, because that probably would be the end.

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by Sylwia Grzegórzko

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NAVAJILLO

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Pablo Perez Petete, better known as Navajillo, is based in Tenerife, Spain. An experimental photographer, he made a brave effort to break some of the general rules of aesthetic, running away from what we call ‘normality’ in our digital times. In our short interview, Navajillo tells us about his background and the reason for creating his original book, which swings between analogue photography, hand-drawing and illustration.

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What was your inspiration for this series of photos?

My real inspiration was a sense of change and eternity. It came about when I lost the phone that I had for more than three months.

I was taking pictures constantly - I think that overall, I took five hundred. I uploaded the ones I liked the most to Instagram. So when I lost my phone, I had to save them somehow but this time in a physical, material form.

What were your influences?

awaken something in me that needed to get out. It was self-therapy more than anything (laughs).

Why have you chosen this and no other form of post-production?

I think it was necessary. The first thing that was clear to me was doing it in book format. I think something was calling me, but I also thought of the idea of a fanzine, which in the future I may do. I had the need to make the series into a physical form, removing it from the binary universe of the Internet.

In my references you can find Ed Templeton, José Ramón Bas and my great friend, Al Betrayal. He was my real inspiration and gave me the motivation to carry out my project. We were EFTI classmates and we shared the same artists, passions, and age (we were the youngest in the class!). He started to make photo books out of hand-drawn pictures. He was the one that really helped me to remove any fear and taught me to learn to do things myself.

Where did you study?

What do you want to convey with the series?

Where are you from?

Perhaps a mood - a moment of transition. I spent a bad time when I started and it was a kind of posthumous sacrifice, an invocation to

I studied photography lab in Las Palmas. Now I look at it with perspective and this was the key to everything. Thanks to understanding the chemical processes, I was hooked to this drug. Later, I studied a Masters in EFTI and that changed my way of seeing the picture. I decided to just do analog, although I like to touch all areas… and finally I studied cinematography at Tai school.

From some Atlantic islands called by the Romans, the ‘lucky islands’ or the ‘island of dogs’ - the Canary Islands.

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GLESSON PAULINO Gleeson Paulino is a young photographer from Sao Paulo, Brasil.

His awe-inspiring photography is an outstanding combination of innocence, seductiveness, youth and simple beauty. Every single one of his photographs is set in exotic locations and all are greatly styled.

Paulino has managed to appear on the pages of many magazines - Harpers Bazaar, to name but one. He mainly collaborates with fashion designer Jao Pimienta. On our website, you can enjoy the fruits of this collaboration by watching the fashion film filmed and directed by Gleeson, himself. Recently, he created a collective with photographer Rafael Perez Evans, called Saints + Evans.

We know, for sure, that he won’t stop engaging us with his extraordinary art. We love the fact that we can show you a fine selection of his work on the pages of our first issue of Croco.

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SELF STYLED LONDON

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ANTHONY LYCETT

Steven Santa Cruz Film Director

Anthony Lycett is a British photographer, who mainly Works capturing native people that stand out for the fact that they are eccentric. In his last years he has been deep inside a special project called Self Styled London, and we liked it so much that we wanted to learn more about it.

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For Lycett, London and Paris have a select group of fabulous creatures that are loyal to themselves, to their own style, which reflects in the streets and which he has chosen to work on.

“Many people I know to photograph come to me through a network I have built in the last six years, it’s really a community project”. He says.

For Him, London is one of the cities with the higher concentration of people and expression of the eccentric style. But it’s not so easy to reach them, they belong to a tribe. You need to be introduced to it by someone inside, in order to explore their world. And sometimes they do it just because their friends are on it and they want to be part of the big creative scene of London.

People he chooses for the pictures are those with unique styles mixed with their own lifestyle. Friends start recommending others and it ends being a big tree, because you don’t know it until you meet and learn from the person. Everything is possible by making a good search, but at the end what really matters is the day’s end, with the pictures result, that’s the point where you can decide if you will work with those models or note.

As a photographer, he has gone

through weird situations, so much that once, in a couple session for Self Styled they started to scream to each other and no one understood what was happening. The thing happened when they were going to shoot the guy for second time and he realized that he had gone away with his clothes forgetting a beach wrap and flip flops. “It was a total show in which the guy was excluded from the project…” he tells us in laughter.

The idea behind Self Styled was basically born from his interest to people who have an individual and personal character. His interest is primary to creative minds and people who have the confidence in themselves to express freely. He manages to capture people´s soul in a natural way, because for him it’s the person who wears the clothes and not the other way around.

In that way, he wanted to bring them all together to a new life that was born in 2008 with the title Self Styled London. “I give a humanist look to the style through an anthropologic perspective” he says.

He adds that this has a lot to do with the city of London. The diversity and creativity of its people it’s from a really alternative style, because they live with the opportunity to feel comfortable

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enough to express themselves freely.

“My work consists on putting each person in front of a neutral background to isolate them from their background, that way I can focus on the details of their style and character”.

He tells each person to choose two outfits, one that represents the daily wear, and a second one that represents the wear of the nighttime. Encapsulating in that way their own unique personality in a space where there are no stylists, where they are truly themselves, what he literally calls Self Styled.

Therefore, each one in their own way, illustrates a personal election exploring topics of gender, body shape, color, stereotypes the story behind or retro futurism He doesn’t define his photography in any special way, because he doesn’t like tags: “Today I’m a portrait photographer and tomorrow I’m a fashion one”.

He tries to develop his own style through all the people he captures, creating in that way his own aesthetic instead of fitting into a category.

He doesn’t try to capture the “cliché” of the pure beauty, he looks to capture the personality of the person. “The slippery je ne sais quoi”, what makes us unique, he defines. “I try to maintain the image that reflects the person, their identity from my understanding towards them” he tells us.

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Victoria Sin Illustrator - Artist

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On Cover Issue 1

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James Edward Quaintance Model

He is an observer, and is for that that he needs a lot of time in order to take the picture and really satisfy his theme. He talks to them, observes how they behave, decrypts their body language, and tries to understand the relationship they have and their own personal style, while trying to find the difference between their “interpreted identity” and their real being Surprised, he tells us about the success of “Self Styled”,“Every success comes from the people I have shot, because is the people what people want to meet. I only hope that soon it turns into a successful book that manifests the style of individuality.” He adds.

Right now he has a lot of exciting projects to come “For one of them I want to look and explore different types of addictions, the first one would be tabaquism. It’s interesting to me because I was never a smoker and I’m intrigued by the way the mind controls the actions of this people” he tells.

The project of his dreams would be to travel all around the world capturing some of the most singular characters along the way or shooting artists from different places, but never abandoning Self Styled.

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talents works issue 1 Margo Stilley Actress

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talents works issue 1 Annet - Patrice Van York Art director

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FLOWERLESS

SYLWIA GRZEGÓRZKO Sylwia Grzegorzko is a London based photographer. Her love for photography started at the age of seventeen, with her main interests focussing on artistic and fashion photography. Her inspirations are women, colours and patterns which we can clearly see in her first editorial, exclusively for Croco - FLOWERLESS. Sylwia takes us on an inspiring journey, filled with melancholy and nostalgia, where dark elegance merges within a fairytale - like atmosphere. Stunning play between shadow and light, colour and lack thereof - all for the purpose of showing the distinctive and often unmarked beauty of women.

Model: Ivana Photographer’s Assistant: Elena Garcia MUA: Mirella Rodriguez Hair: Catherine May Budgen Dress and trousers: Petriiski Fashion Coat: Brick Lane Market (London)

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BOYS DON’T CRY

DENISSE GARCÍA

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Photographer from Havana, Cuba. Now living between Barcelona and London.

After graduating in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona, Denisse studied a Master’s Degree in Photography and Design at the ELISAVA Barcelona School of Design and Engineering.

Since completing her Master’s Degree, Denisse has presented several individual exhibitions, as well as participating in multiple collective exhibitions. She is also official photographer of the music festivals Xtrarradio and Artenou in Barcelona, and is a contributor with La Monda Magazine and TrendsMag. She has worked on numerous personal projects, in addition to work commissioned by global brands such as Heineken, Converse, TOUS Jewellery and Cocolia.

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personal projects are defined by her capacity to explain absurd, experimenting with clichés while always enduing images with an aseptic and personal touch. She is moved motivated by vacuous spaces, the body and the staged.

“Boys don’t cry” – the new editorial by Denisse. An evocative story whose narrative is set within a white, simplistic setting and is teeming with a mixture of abstract patterns and sensitivity to colour. It encapsulates the perfection of boyhood and forsakenness. Every detail is amazingly pronounced with ostrich skin, blazers and leather trousers.

Model: Nicolas (UNO Models) Stylist: Ainhoa Gormaz MUA & Hair: Ana Cano

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Top ostrich leather ALBENIZ and ADAM KIMMEL hat p

Jacket and shirt by SANDRO tie by GUESS and hat by ADAM KIMMEL

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Transparent blouse AlbĂŠniz

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Jacket and shirt by SANDRO tie by GUESS

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Jacket by Salvatore Ferragamo Blouse by Albeniz

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ANNE-SOPHIE COCHEVELOU Anne-Sophie Cochevelou, a young designer from Brittany, France, is a rising star in the fashion world. Chance led her to contact the Lego company, asking for the blocks for a project she was working on. They refused, but nevertheless, offered her the opportunity to create the design that shot her to fame in London’s Fashion Week 2013 with her hand-made Lego dress. Such was the impact of her creation, the artist appeared in the pages of Vogue!

Cochevelou tells us a little more about herself and her work.

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Does your degree at La Sorbonne influence your creativity?

Before my MA in Performance, Design & Practice at Central Saint Martins, I completed a BA in Literature & Drama at La Sorbonne which was not only theatrical but also academic. I wasn’t creating much at that time, but it really brought some discipline to my work and helped me to think conceptually, philosophically.

I developed a general knowledge, which broadened the references for my work as an artist. Technicality and practice came after.

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Do you feel like you are getting more recognition in London than in Paris?

Why does it happen?

I feel that I correspond more to the London aesthetic. My work is a bit wild, chokingly colourful and untutored, whereas the French style is more minimalist and in control.

The good thing is that my work seems to be a lot more appreciated in Paris because it appears very original (I sound a bit like an alien with my performance, whereas it is relatively mainstream in London).

Anyway, I like to have it both ways and be the little Frenchie in London, and the crazy Londoner girl in Paris!

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Colourful Rubber dress at London Fashion Week picture by Marie-Paola Bertrand-Hillion

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Do you have any favourite photographers?

A few names that I know of and like in photography are Tim Walker and Annie Leibovitz. I love the performative and narrative aspect of their art. A British London photographer that I especially admire is Anthony Lycett and his self-style projects. talents

What influences you the most in your creative work? Music, mass media, cinematography, everyday life…?

Everything - my work is mainly inspired by my background in performance. I am really stimulated by objects from everyday life.

I can see their creative potential and how they can be diverted from their original function.

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For example, I love to visit Pound shops and look at the plastic toys and try to imagine new designs from them.

Do you dislike anything in the fashion industry?

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The standardized image of beauty, unaffordable prices, the elitism of this world, the notion of “trend of the season, fashion mistakes, fashion rules…” etc. But, on the other hand, fashion makes me dream and I know it can be amazingly creative!

would say I am more of a fashion outsider - what I wear is never the last fashion trend, never the colour of the season, the right length of skirt, the right shape of coat… I usually go out in theatre costume!

We all know that fashion designers, by rule, claim tall and extremely skinny models. What is your position in all this?

I am not going to lie to you - clothes definitely look better on skinny and tall models. They sell the dream.

However, I think that girls have to be clever enough to realise that this is not reality - models are outside the norm, or they are photoshopped! The Fashion industry is just creating these unreachable canons of beauty to make woman insecure about themselves.

When it comes to style, everybody can look good by expressing their individuality and personality and by looking confident with what they are wearing. Dressing weirdly with bright clothing was a way of escaping the dichotomy (pretty/ ugly) and to accept myself as I was.

I didn’t want people to think, when they saw me on the street, that this was an ugly or pretty girl but rather “the girl with the Barbie necklace”.

Do you see yourself as a part of it?

I have a passion for clothes. I like to dress up and I love going to fashion shows to see the crowds and all the excitement around it. However, I

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Tutti Frutti dress photographed by Anthony Lycett

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The Lego dress which I made for Fashion Week with more than 5000 Lego bricks. It was presented at Somerset house and featured in Vogue. It was just like a dream - hopefully there will be more to come!

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What is the biggest highlight of your career?

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I hand-stitch everything and work mainly with the accumulation of objects, so one completely loses notion of time. I watch a lot of movies whilst sewing (from French New wave to crap reality shows!)

The Lego dress took three hundred and fifty hours, as I had to stick each Lego piece on, one by one.

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Always longer than I imagine when I start! Clients don’t understand that if they want a costume, it can’t be ready for at least before three weeks because I am not simply “making clothes” but trying to develop the concept of “wearable art”.

It was decorated with purple paint and glitter, and hangs on the wall in my house in Brittany. Tacky, kitsch and colourful - premise of my creations to be!

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How much time do you take to create a piece of art?

I can’t really choose because I like them all for different reasons. I love the extravagance of Jean-Paul Gaultier, the enchanting creations of Alexander Mc Queen, the chic of Yves Saint Laurent… From modern independent designers, I recently discovered the work of Jane Bowler, Nathan French or Nympha.

Are all of your designs a kind of self-portrait?

I guess I put a lot of myself in my creations and each one reveals, in a way, an aspect of my personality.

By the use of toys or vibrant colours, a lot of them are connected with childhood, and being creative is a way of expressing the child inside of you. My designs are all different but there is a “je ne sais quoi” where you can tell it is mine - the Anne-Sophie touch!

As far as I remember, a sculpture in plaster with my hand-print when I was 3 years old, for Mother’s Day.

Custom rhinoceros necklace for Catherine Muller with barbie dolls top and pheasant feather headpiece picture by Anthony Lycett

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Series of pictures taken at her Open studio event at Sylwia Grzeg贸rzko by the brilliant portrait photographer Anthony Lycett

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On the left: Bruna Ignatowska and Vanessa Murell.

On the right: Bea Carrasco

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On the left: Sue Kreitzman.

On the right: Allegra Goldie with Anne Sophie Cochevelou

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On the left: JesĂşs Rodriguez and Vanessa Murell On the right: Diane Goldie

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On the left: Antonio Bonicci and Catherine Muller On the right: Rosy Pendlebaby

“Everyone could try some of my pieces, interpret them with their own style creating a meeting point between two universes. I don’t need model to wear my jewels and I don’t want “normal people”… I just need expectational people!” - Anne Sophie Cochevelou.

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Strange models

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The world is full of beautiful girls, social networks, models agencies too.

But is ‘PRETTY’ enough to be relevant today?

Currently being tall, beautiful and having great hair is not enough to succeed in the fashion world. Having a unique style, magnetism and an alien face has become the key to success. Here is my personal compilation of five models that certainly are not from this planet!

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Translation Sylwia Grzegórzko

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talents works The 26 year old Belgian model, Hanne Gaby is no stranger to the fashion world where she has spent several years at the very pinnacle. Her physique is unmistakable. Hanne has walked for Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Miu Miu and Valentino, among others, and has appeared on covers for Vogue Italia, Teen Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar ......... Her undeniable aura and style on the catwalks is admired and captured by most street-style bloggers every fashion week. She is the definitive supermodel and one of the coolest at this moment in time. Love u, Hanne!

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Lily McMenamy and top model mother, Kristens McMenamy both share the kind of strange beauty which is hard to forget. Lily, only 20 years of age, has already worked with major brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Fendi, Balmain, Moschino, and with photographers such as Juergen Teller or and Peter Lindbergh. The one thing we can say for sure is that Lily’s charismatic beauty, edging on roughness, has certainly nothing to do with being ordinary!

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Lili Sumner is a 20 years old New Zealand model who has been working since she was fourteen. 2014 was an important year for her. Lili walked for Saint Laurent and others brands such as Maison Martin Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, Diesel, Sibling, Joseph ... Her strange beauty, marked cheekbones and pronounced diastema (the gap between her two front teeth) has been on cover of ID magazine, photographed by Slimane and also in editorials for Vogue, Dazed & Confused, L’Officiel, Wonderland Magazine.

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The first time I saw Molly Bair was in a random photo on Tumblr. She had me totally mesmerized. I spent more than ten seconds looking at her and that’s a long time for me to be watching something on the internet! For those who don’t know, Molly is a year old American model who is 1.82 cm tall and with such a set of special features that no one is left on the fence, as you can see by Proenza Schouler, Prada, Dior, Loewe, Giambattista Valli and Chanel being interested in her. It seems

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Kelly Mittendorf was not the kind of girl that fitted easily into the high-school scene in her native Scottsdale (Arizona) being an awkward wallflower. This did not stop Prada from whisking her out of school at the age of sixteen for their campaign F/W 2011 with Steven Meisel as a photographer, quickly followed by shows for Marc Jacobs, Loewe, Diesel and Mulberry. This past year, she hasn’t work as much though as she is focusing on her studies. Kelly, we will miss you; you and your alien beauty.

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by Boris Ponton

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THE FILMIC LIFE OF issue 1

Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, better known as Yves Saint Laurent, was born in Algeria in 1936 and is regarded as one of the greatest couturiers of French haute couture and pret-a-porter in fashion history. His influence was pivotal in the fashion world of the seventies and early eighties with his innovative styling of cloth and structuring of the female costume where he merged the classic and masculine with the fantastic.

Translation Sylwia Grzeg贸rzko

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Warhol forged personal relationships with many fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent, for whom he created a paneled portrait in 1972 based off a series of Polaroids to be sold in the Christie’s auction (pictured)

Yves was born into a middle class family. He liked to create intricate paper dolls, and by his early teen years he was designing dresses for his mother and sisters. In 1953, aged eighteen, he won a contest for young fashion designers, organized by the International Wool Secretariat and was invited to attend the awards ceremony in Paris.

After graduating in Foreign Languages at University in Algeria, he moved to Paris and enrolled at the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, where he quickly emerged as the star pupil. He entered the International Wool Secretariat competition again and won, beating the young German student Karl Lagerfeld.

His designs impressed Michel de Brunhoff, editor-in-chief of the French edition of Vogue magazine. Brunhoff went on to introduce Yves to the fashion giant, Christian Dior, who after a fifteen-minute interview, offered him a job at the House of Dior which was the most prestigious House in the world of fashion at that time.

Dior died aged 52, from a massive heart attack in 1957. Twenty one years old Saint-Laurent, took over management of the brand, and the following year he launched his famous “trapeze dress”, catapulting him to international stardom. Unfortunately, he had to interrupt this work to fulfil his military duties in the Algerian war, but this only lasted two and a half

months as he was soon declared unfit for the army on mental health grounds.

Around the same time, he found out that he had been fired by House of Dior and replaced by Marc Bohan. Saint Laurent went on to sue Dior in 1961 for breach of contract and with his lover and partner, industrialist Pierre Bergé and a team of collaborators who came from Dior, he started his own fashion house Yves Saint Laurent YSL. He was the first French couturier to come out with a full prêtà-porter (ready-to-wear) line.

He popularized trends such as the beatnik look - safari jackets, tight trousers, thigh-high boots and and and pantsuits with the first form of transparency ever revolutionary for the time.

Many of his collections were received rapturously by both his fans and the press, such as the famous classic tuxedo suit for women in 1966, Le Smoking.

Still on full blast with the miniskirt, Saint-Laurent, inspired by the colourful paintings of Mondrian, incorporated it into his collection in 1965 with remarkable success.

In 1966 he opened his first boutique, Rive Gauche, where his first customer was Catherine Deneuve. Rive Gauche quickly developed into a worldwide chain of 150 stores with a staff of ten thousand. In 1974, he introduced a series of haute couture with menswear pants, blazers

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Yves Saint Laurent poses next to a portrait of himself at his Paris boutique in 1966. Speaking on French radio, Pierre Berge, the designer’s former business and personal partner, said he’d empowered women. “In this sense he was a libertarian, an anarchist and he threw bombs at the legs of society.”

and shirts, which were characteristics of the female wardrobe from seventies. Equally, his formal attire was sumptuous, fantastic, colourful, romantic and often inspired by exotic outfits in Cossack style. In 1978, he launched his children’s line of pret-a-porter, exclusively for the United States.

Of Saint-Lauren’s perfumes, ‘Y’ was released in 1964, ‘Rive Gauche’ in 1977, ‘Opium’ in 1981 and ‘Paris’ in 1989. He also made perfumes for men, and famously posed naked in 1971 to advertise their release, causing much consternation.

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Yves’s innovations in the world of fashion, especially in terms of colour and pattern design, and the incredible number of prototypes made for his collections, were increasingly, globally acclaimed. He also designed costumes for both ballet and theatre, and in 1983 Diana Vre-

eland organized a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art – Saint Laurent was the first living designer to receive such an accolade.

Over time however, Saint Laurent’s health began to deteriorate under the pressure of designing two haute couture and two prêt-à-porter collections every year and he turned more and more to alcohol and drugs. The company ran in to several economic problems, and had to merge with the the French public oil-holding company, Elf Sanofi, specifically its Sanofi-Beauté division, which controlled other well-known brands in the fashion world.

Saint Laurent and Bergé separated, creating even more havoc to the blighted House and in 1998, the firm was acquired by LVMH. The great couturier died in Paris in 2008, his death a great loss to the world of fashion.

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Yves Saint Laurent holds a drawing of the design that won a contest in Paris en1953. His success in the contest drew the attention of the team of designers Christian Dior

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Saint Laurent with his two friends, Betty Catroux and Loulou de la Falaise outside the YSL Rive Gauche boutique in London, 1969

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COMPARATIVE MOVIES During 2014, two films were released about the life of one of the greatest couture designers that the world of fashion has ever known, lending us two differing ways to observe a life full of success, failure and excess.

“Yves Saint Laurent” directed by Jalil Lespert, was authorized by his lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé. The film takes a look at Yves’ life from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met Bergé. Mooted as a conventional biopic, it was made without any major controversy. It depicts Saint Laurent’s meteoric rise in the fashion world and his Machiavellian relationship with drugs and alcohol, and Pierre Bergé, his partner, lover and protector of his private life.

From the critic’s point of view, this vision of Yves Saint Laurent did not do well as it was categorized as too classical, bland, sanitized and madeto-please.

“Saint Laurent”, on the other hand, was less flattering. Directed by Bertrand Bonello, it was filmed without Bergé’s consent and he tried unsuccessfully to sue the movie’s creators. It is a portrait of the great man during the years 19651976, during which time the famed fashion designer was at the peak of his career.

With its superior creative team, the film was better

acclaimed, winning 4 awards and receiving 19 nominations. Bonello’s film is impressionistic - histrionic, lyrical, sometimes macabre and considered by critics as “fascinating from beginning to end.” However, it must to be said that this film was not well received by the public at Cannes either.

Filled with countless lovers, excesses of alcohol and drug use, debauchery, sleaze and sadness, Bonello’s search for that “something more” in the life of designer managed to win over neither Saint Larent’s relatives nor the audience at large.

In both cases, the directors focussed more on the personality of the man rather than his magnificent talent and his artistic universe. In the end, it is the public who has the last word – the public who will make their own judgment on the intense and exciting life of the great character that was Yves Saint Laurent.

by Miguel Suárez c

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Only lovers left alive

“Unhappy people are dangerous”, says the Spanish version of Fausto´s billboard, a free adaptation by Alexander Sokurov of Goethe´s work.

Awarded the Golden Lion in the 68th Venice International Cinema Festival, the Russian’s work is the best contemporary depiction of the internal fights that solitary beings suffer in corrupt societies.

Translation Carla Bayo

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Unfortunately, when he manages to civilize himself, he notices that it makes sense no more. The animalization of the human being has grown and he is now threatened, not for his condition of blood lust but for his intellectuality. We are presented with a dystopian vision, a clear depiction of our destroyed cities territories that have murdered their cultural patrimony, their creators, with cinemas and theaters turned into parking lots and isolation being the only way to survive. The civilized vampire who appreciated art and rational thought, is now forced to flee, ostracized because the model says that is not the correct path.

of resignation. This kind of night creature has been perfectly depicted in the films of American film screenwriter and director Abel Ferrara.

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The ’solitary being ‘we are confronted with is a contemporary vampire, conscious of the infinite opportunities that knowledge gives him, but who must fight against his own blood thirstiness, against his own basic instinct... In contrast, the vampire Jim Jarmush proposes in his magnificent “Only Lovers Left Alive” is capable of regulating that primeval urge that has condemned him for decades and relishes knowledge and creativity as a way of life.

From the artist in The Driller Killer, to his vision of the IMF ex-manager, Dominique StraussKahn, in Welcome to New York, through to The Addiction, where he proposes the topic in direct form.

In Ferrara´s vampire portfolio, something similar to Fausto or the Literary Bat (death and rebirth) happens. The dissipation of his principles, a conflagration of his instinct leads to an acceptance of the system, unlike Jarmush’s vampire who will always corrupt again in order to survive.

The big corporations that govern us have created a vicious circle in which they entrap each human being, manipulating and controlling their lives which are increasingly dominated by consumerism, and distancing them from the basic human instinct to survive and where, in the end they will be forced to return to the caves.

In this context, we find another kind of vampire. We could call it an adapted vampire, even though in reality, it is the victim

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by Alejandro Rutz Over time it seems that society has forgotten how to think - to conceptualize. We have shelved our ability to analyze the world around us and that makes us vulnerable.

Much of it is our fault. Our brains are lazy, stuffing them with crushed concepts - pieces of information that are all too easily digested.

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The film industry, the best sellers, the witless YouTube videos or simply the vids, - concepts ‘bites’ that fill the screens on our phones, our tablets and our computers - 21st century culture trains, firing rapid, often inaccurate information, in industrial amounts, at us.

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We shouldn’t judge ourselves.

After all, we are now a society in increasing need of instant information, seeking quick and instant pleasure - small doses of entertainment in digital capsules.

Coming home after a hard day’s work, how many will think, “I don’t have the time to fully immerse myself watching an entire film, or reading a book or whatever it is we do with our spare time. I’ll just skim” Does that sound like the future to you?

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of the ancient word - “concept”.

Well... what is a concept? To avoid philosophical debates, I refer to the English dictionary definition of the noun; namely “a general notion or idea or an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or a directly conceived or intuited object of thought.”

What especially caught my attention was the definition of the verb ‘conceptualize’: “to determine something after examining the circumstances”. We all should pay much more attention to the notion of ‘concept’ – establishing things in our mind after examining the circumstances. What may then happen is that the world of logic will open before our eyes. I know it is utopian to try to conceptualize everything we see but try doing it a few times and ask yourself…

What am I doing with my free time? What is the idea behind each advertisement? What are really trying to sell? By turning on the TV, am I turning off my mind.

Ask yourself what is the concept?...

Sadly, easy access to information has made us forget the importance

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Translation Sylwia Grzegórzko

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Concept

by Samuel Mayoral

Translation Sylwia Grzeg贸rzko

Decisions

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You can take a test the next time you find yourself in a situation of significant indecision. When the coin is in the air, and spiraling downwards, about to end its flight and decree its random choice – in those brief micro-seconds

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I don’t remember where I read about the act of flipping a coin, nor the exact words used to describe it, so with no intention of undue intellectual appropriation, I’ll use my own explanation, and add my personal reflections thereon. To toss a coin is much more than a simple method of choice. It allows us to listen to our instincts which are freer and more sincere than our minds. It reveals the true wishes we hold within, making us realize, without any pretext, the genuine feelings we harbour inside. So you see, the tossing of a coin is far removed from making a simple choice between two options.

– emanating from the soul – not from logical reasoning or culture – arising from within our deepest subconscious, is the fundamental understanding of what we truly desire – heads or tails; do we really want to go or stay; do we sincerely feel the need to study this or that; choose this job or that one; be with that person or not.

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We know what we want. The problem is that our own and often chaotic framework of emotions and cognitions do not allow us to see clearly, at least not with the clarity with which we have in our minds. It would seem that, more often than we would like, we are the essence of our own blindness, our own curtain preventing us from seeing what is behind, or rather, what is inside.

Being on the brink of losing freedom of choice is when fear, guilt, responsibility and compassion all combine to give a firm helping hand, illuminated by a divine light, making it clear beyond all doubt, what we really want to be. This freedom has the ability to confound us and only when we are a breath away from losing it, are we able to truly listen without fear.

We know what we want, of course we do – but we only can be without all doubt, when on the verge of the precipice of not being able to choose, true clarity prevails. Both mind and heart can be our best friends or our worst enemies. The point, the essential key to understanding this matter, consists of being able to accurately identify the moment in which we should listen to one of them above the other, and vice versa.

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See you soon!

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