Youthful purity ISSUE 01
Rejuvenated by fresh ideas. Honest testimony of an artist’s pain. Pure essence of it. Escapism from male gaze. World of darkness and desire. Claim your cuntness. Let oneself be submerged, sucked in. Gentle sunrays: bold yet fragile. Complement each other in lacking. Undifferentiated body in its extreme.
CONTENTS 7
BATHTIME ESCAPISM
15
25
29
35
MOONLIGHT ON BARE SKIN
CROSS THE LINES
CAPTURING THE YOUTHFUL FLEETINGNESS
HIDE-AND-SEEK
QUEENS GET THE MONEY
FLAVOUR OF IRON AND LEATHER
BARE-SKINNED STORIES
IN DARKNESS WE MEET
39
43
47
53
SEE, BITE, LICK, STROKE
61
Team: Anna Wim Gabriela Holesova Padla Nemeckova Bajza Dolezalova Paulina Matova Contributors: Luna Lopez Zane Valujeva Anna Urik Birk Thomassen EylĂźl Aslan Clodia Mp Lumir Spanihel Grete Astover Monika Kojetska Danae Cuesta Florian Hetz Art Direction: Lumir Spanihel
Content is a property of authors & Kink.cz Printed in Copenhagen, 2017.
BATHTIME ESCAPISM
PHOTOS. LUNA LOPEZ - MODEL. MADS (ELITE) STYLING. ZANE VALUJEVA - MUA. STEFANA BIRSAN CLOTHING. HENRIK SILVIUS, MATHIAS BROCHORS, ELLEN PEDERSEN TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA
Take a stroll around the empty corridors of a momentarily abandoned bathhouse with stories untold wafting through the air and catch a glance of a fleeting mirror reflection as you pass by. Is this who you’re looking for?
SJÆLLANDSGADE K Ø B E N H AV N N
In the midst of the Sjællandsgade Bath in Copenhagen, the spirit of the place lives and breathes between the walls, absorbing everything that’s been left behind. Though spanning over a hundred years, it’s far from being decrepit, constantly being rejuvenated by fresh ideas coming from young souls carried out in the rooms of the still functioning bath. This time around, join in on an exploration of the interiors of the bathhouse and perhaps recesses of one’s mind, dressed in creations of young Danish designers Henrik Silvius, Mathias Brochorst, and Ellen Pedersen styled by Zane Valujeva. Imparting a look of enigma to it, the model Mads (Elite Model Management) wanders around the hallways, his piercing look enhanced by the make-up artist Stefana Birsan, captured through the lens of the photographer Luna Lopez.
Absorbing everything that’s been left behind.
CROSS THE LINES
Uranus is an average distance of 1,783,939,400 miles or 2,870,972,200 kilometers from the Sun. Because its orbit is elliptical, its distance from the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. The closest Uranus gets to the Sun is 1,699,800,000 miles or 2,735,560,000 kilometers.
PHOTOS. ANNA URIK - CLIENT. URAN BERLIN MODELS. ALEXIA HAHN, EMILY IDEN - MUA. DAHAB GAMMOUR TEXT. PADLA NEMECKOVA
The new collection of the Berlin clothing brand URAN subverts the game rules of fashion industry. Shiny coins kill the creativity. But sometimes creativity arises from the struggle.
Not anymore.
“In the industry, designers become redundant. No wonder there is no space to really create something in a world that have adapted the copy as the new idol.”
URAN is a Berlin-based unisex clothing brand with a conscious philosophy focusing on quality design, materials, and manufacturing. The following fashion editorial features URAN’s new collection titled “Once I Was an Artist”. According to the words of the brand’s founder and designer Melis Yildiz, the collection grew out of her bitter disenchantment caused by the clash between the intention of an artist and the commerce-driven tradition of fashion industry. “In the industry, designers become redundant. No wonder there is no space to really create something in a world that have adapted the copy as the new idol.” The designers get stuck in the struggle of opposing forces – the desire to be recognized and appraised by the fashion market versus the elementary need for creative self-expression.
However, Melis decided to subvert the negative force and use it as a powerful drive for her work. As reflected in this collection, the artist’s suffering can be ultimately used as the source of creative flow. “Once I Was an Artist” is an honest testimony of an artist’s pain. The models, lounging around at running tracks, just kind of express that they are done with this race for money and meaningless production. Positioned outside the traditional quantity-over-quality oriented industry, they are about to change the rules of the game.
CAPTURING THE YOUTHFUL FLEETINGNESS
PHOTOS. BIRK THOMASSEN TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA
Coming from the heart of a Danish hinterland, Birk Thomassen’s intimate photographs are pure expressions of the delicate atmosphere of his own universe.
SJÆLLANDSGADE K Ø B E N H AV N N
Fuelled by his frustration with traditional painting and drawing methods during the early school years, Birk found his preferred medium in an old digital camera that allowed for the formation of his personal creative outlet. Growing up in the countryside in the northern Denmark where he never really connected with his classmates, Thomassen decided to break free from the small town limiting him in his creative pursuits and ended up studying Fine Art Photography at the Glasgow School of Art. Birk’s images document the intimate moments with his friends and boyfriends or depict his very own perceptions of the surroundings. The intertwining element in his pictures is always a sense of warmness, genuineness and honesty stripped to the pure essence of it. A mere glance at the photographer’s work manages to evoke the beautiful fleetingness of moments full of life and lets us delve into our own minds, finding a deep connection and a sense of nostalgia for our own moments of youthful purity.
HIDE-AND-SEEK
d d d d d d d d d d
i i i i i i i i i i
s s s s s s s s s s
g g g g g g g g g g
u u u u u u u u u u
i i i i i i i i i i
s s s s s s s s s s
PHOTOS. EYLÜL ASLAN TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA
On the verge of shadow and light, Eylül Aslan’s photographs are expressions of intimacy playing with disguise.
e e e e e e e e e e
SJÆLLANDSGADE K Ø B E N H AV N N
Born in Istanbul, now based in Berlin, the photographer focuses the lens of her camera on the exploration of female body, fuelled by her own experience of living as a woman in the conservative Turkish society. Her photographs are a way of escapism from the male gaze, they are a safe place where she positions herself and her subjects only in the gaze of her own camera. Her challenging approach and feminism were instilled in her by her very liberal mother, who also gave her the first camera which impelled her on the way of pursuing photography as the means of expressing her own views and conveying a strong message touching upon the position of women in Turkey. Eylßl’s images are a play of light and shadow, yet always colourful and with a sense of warmness. Slightly surreal at times, the subjects of her photographs are shown in fragments or partially hidden, evoking a game of hide-and-seek.
MOONLIGHT ON BARE SKIN
PHOTOS. CLODIA MP TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA
Dark, sensual and shrouded in a tinge of enigma, Clodia Mp’s photographs only reveal mystery-veiled fragments that leave enough space for your own interpretations of hidden yearnings.
SJÆLLANDSGADE K Ø B E N H AV N N
Born in Georgia and currently based in Thessaloniki, Greece, Clodia studied Audio Visual Arts which further propelled her on the path of exploring photography as her main creative outlet. Her photographs are dimly lit, as if they were shot under the moonlight, engulfing you into a world of darkness and desire. They are never overly revealing, instead they make your imagination run wild and let you envision scenarios of your own. Who is that girl? You know her and you don’t.
YOU KNOW HER AND YOU DON’T.
QUEENS GET THE MONEY
PHOTOS. LUMIR SPANIHEL - ART DIRECTION. ANNA WIM STYLING. GRETE ASTOVER - MODEL. BENJAMIN SØLBERG CLOTHES. COCKWHORE & MACHO, STYLIST’S OWN
Immerse yourself into some serious cunty disco craze vibes with our Cockwhore & Macho fashion editorial. Go get it, gurl.
SJÆLLANDSGADE K Ø B E N H AV N N
Werk, werk, werk.
You know the struggle: You’re planning to go out, but have no idea what to wear. This t-shirt or that top? Duh, nothing seems cool enough. And what should you play to get into the mood? Britney’s Top Hits again? The Danish DJ & design duo Cockwhore & Macho can actually help you with both. Apart from providing you with excellent mixes of Disco & “90s Faghouse”—and being stylish as fuck themselves—, they also have their own online shops with the coolest merch ever. The collection, which includes t-shirts, hats, necklaces, and other accessories, is both sweet and sassy. We fell in love with the chic duo at last year’s Yo! Sissy Music Festival, a two-day celebration getting the Berlin queer community together, taking place every summer. A few months later, we’re bringing you an exclusive fashion editorial shot by Lumir Spanihel. While we can’t really make you play our favourite Cockwhore & Macho mixtape, make sure to catch them serving you some sick beats live as least! Claim your cuntness and werk, werk, werk.
FLAVOUR OF IRON AND LEATHER
ARTWORK. MONIKA KOJETSKA TEXT. PADLA NEMECKOVA
Somewhere between painting and object, in her work Monika Kojetskรก expresses the laws of attraction, desire, and fetish. Turn off the light and get magnetized.
The work of Monika Kojetska, a Brno-based artist and FaVU graduate, revolves around the topics of bodily experience, sexuality, and desire. While in her earlier paintings she expressively explored the body, in her recent works she pushes these themes into a more abstract and symbolic place though still maintaining the sense of touch. The reason why her work seems to be both symbolic and sensual could be the technique which hovers somewhere between a traditional painting and art object. Monika uses different materials with regard to their essential characteristic, as vehicles of expression and unique semantics. The sleek textiles, artificial leather, magnetic foil, nylon, and metal swarf suddenly perform the function of both, signifier and signified. Lately, the main motifs forming Monika’s work have been desire, attraction, and repulsion with a tinge of fetish overtones. It’s the static electric of nylon tights
scratched by sharp metal filings. The attraction of magnet irresistible to tender bushes of metal spikes. The leather crease sealed, the leather crease ruptured. “To search deep down one’s innermost emotions and desires. To experience the intensity of the dark. Let oneself be submerged, sucked in… In the invisible, you can do anything. Yield to the temptation. What lights the fire of your fantasies? Sheen, liquid, smooth crease, slippery touch. May what you’ve got in there be my fetish. You can feel it on the skin. The skin that attracts you, it pricks, you hurt.” Get your own experience of Monika’s suggestive work with the photos and gifs below. To get the full flavour, push play on the two exclusive tracks from Ton Tron on Kink’s website, the creator of sound & music for Monika’s exhibition openings.
BARE-SKINNED STORIES
PHOTOS. DANAE CUESTA TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA
Intense yet tender, Danae Cuesta balances between the extremes like the soft rays of sunlight tiptoeing on people’s skin in her photography.
The Spanish photographer now based in Berlin focuses most of her work on capturing the pure reflections of people clad in not much but bare skin, revealing all of their facets dispersed in gentle sunrays; bold yet fragile. Dånae’s photography is proudly unretouched, showing us her subjects in all of their authenticity supported by the medium of analogue camera. Skin on skin, the bodies are intertwined in each other, being reduced to us distinguishing them rather as individual body parts disconnected from the wholeness of their torsos, making genders and their normative representations entirely irrelevant.
IN DARKNESS WE MEET
PHOTOS. UY STUDIO TEXT. GABRIELA HOLESOVA INTERVIEW. ANNA WIM
Going beyond the conventional notions about fashion, the Berlin-based brand UY makes a bold stroke with black almost synonymous with their identity to wipe out all rules and start with a clear canvas for creating genderless, timeless, and all culture embracing garments. Get a taste of their darkness in our interview below.
The Spanish photographer now based in Berlin focuses most of her work on capturing the pure reflections of people clad in not much but bare skin, revealing all of their facets dispersed in gentle sunrays; bold yet fragile. Dånae’s photography is proudly unretouched, showing us her subjects in all of their authenticity supported by the medium of analogue camera. Skin on skin, the bodies are intertwined in each other, being reduced to us distinguishing them rather as individual body parts disconnected from the wholeness of their torsos, making genders and their normative representations entirely irrelevant.
Starting off in Barcelona as a creative endeavour of two friends meeting at a fashion school, the label saw its beginning as a small batch of T-shirts made by the design duo of Idan Gilony and Fanny Lawaetz for themselves and their friends, quickly gaining its popularity and a demand for more. From there on it all gathered a rapid momentum, the brand being named UY and moving to Berlin, a city perfectly reflecting the essence of the it: vanguard, bold and free.
UY
For starters, could you describe UY in three words? Genderless, confident & minimalistic. How does a typical day at the UY studio look like? Idan: A regular day at UY starts off with us having a green smoothie together while discussing our plans of the day over breakfast. The team then comes in at 12, we smoke a cigarette together and start working. Lunchtime is when we all sit together and is mostly our time to hangout and chit chat, I usually cook for all of us (this is actually how I started to like cooking!). Work usually ends at 6-7pm. Throughout the day, there’s an influx of friends and customers coming in and out; to say hello, buy clothes, or for a meeting. Our studio is always a full house which is great because we always love to host! Both of you come from different countries (Fanny comes from Sweden and Idan from Israel), and you met while studying in Spain. How have these diverse environments influenced you? Fanny: Our difference in culture really gave us a balance, and allowed us to complement each other in what we lack. Israel is a bit chaotic, whereas Sweden is very organized.
You describe your clothes as genderless. Lately, gender identities that go beyond the binary have been receiving more visibility than ever before. Do you think we are finally moving beyond gender? Fanny: I think we are on a good path, as we’re living in Berlin, I sometimes feel that it is getting a lot more visible. But Berlin indeed feels like a bubble from time to time, and when we leave we see how some other places are still following more traditional ways. Many different fashion shows in Paris for example have been mixing it up, and now French Vogue has had its first transgender person on its cover. So I do believe there will be a change, and good change takes time. You have often named Berlin as one of the main sources of inspiration, and one can definitely feel the city’s very own edge and novelty from your designs. Which place (or neighborhood perhaps) inspires you the most? Idan: What we love most about Berlin is that everywhere you go you can find inspiration - it’s a great melting pot of culture and style. Could you reveal what we can expect from UY in 2017? Idan: Let’s say that you should stay tuned, new surprises are coming!
SEE, BITE, LICK, STROKE
PHOTOS. FLORIAN HETZ TEXT. PADLA NEMECKOVA
Raw and unapologetic, Florian Hetz’s photography captures the tart beauty of cum and sweat.
Photographic works of the artist, currently living and working in Berlin, focus on physicality in its purest form. The highly detailed crispy pictures serve as a rough and honest testament proving that there is, and never has been, nothing gross or cringy about the corporeal being. It is a delicate survey through art of every inch of our skin, every curve, crease and hole, every little hair that twists and curls underneath the clothes. It is a w, when the heartbeat meets the emotion in sweat and blood. The flash reflected in fresh salty cum makes you appreciate the intimacy in exposure. The bodily experience is inherently sensual and accordingly, you can see, taste, feel, and touch through Hetz‘s work.
ARTWORK. BEATA CERVIN