Nico International #5 2011

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Dear readers, Here we are with nico 5 hot off the presses. After an eventful year travelling and celebrating the previous issue’s victories, the pressure was on, not only to stay true to our promise and dedicate our pages to the celebration of creative talents all around the globe, but also to go beyond and not rest on our laurels.

It is no secret that with our love for creativity comes an intrinsically linked love for quality (often times independent) magazines, it is with that in mind that we wanted to share with you the vision of some ground-breaking art directors whose work has been or will be documented in the release of books on their creative vision. These are Harri Peccinotti, Mike Meiré, and Mario Lombardo.

While Peccinotti’s celebration of women became some times controversial, so is an emerging sport amongst women who are seeking to get in touch with their inner warrior, to learn more, read our report on Girls Roller Derby…

But breaking barriers, today, does not always have to come with force.

It often goes hand in hand with nonconformity, refusing to adhere to top-down mediocrity and maybe even winding back the clock to celebrate things of a time past. It can be found in a newfound appreciation of craftsmanship and detailed design, the yearning for quality. One of our interviewees, Thomas Erber, seeks to embody exactly that in his Cabinet of Curiosities.

Detailed design is also something you can read about in our interview with Mathieu Lehanneur. While some are still busy discrediting global warming either out of sheer ignorance or simply because it is not profitable, this designer is someone who recognizes that innovative creation is one of tomorrow’s driving forces.

Last but not least, following the celebration of the world’s biggest contemporary art fairs it seemed appropriate to present the work of artist, graphic and contemporary alike. (Tina Gillen, Kustaa Saksi & Spike) And for your viewing pleasure we are bringing you a series of ethereal and dreamy shoots as seen by photographers with whom we have developed the habit of working and others we had the pleasure of discovering.

Enjoy!

Angelina A. Rafii Fashion Editor

Mike Koedinger Editor in chief

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Faces Model: Tilda Lindstam Agency: IMG New York www.imgmodels.com Chosen by photographer Amber Gray Amber is represented by Anderson Hopkins.

www.ambergrayphotography.com Gender Female Height Hips Waist Bust Hair Eyes

5’10.5 (179 cm) 31” (78,7 cm) 23” (58,4 cm) 34.5” (87,6 cm) Light Brown Brown

Photo by Amber Gray.

The characters portrayed in Amber Gray’s work inhabit a world more colorful, dramatic, and whimsical than our own.

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Masthead Cover work by Kustaa Saksi Managing editor & Creative director: Mike Koedinger mike@mikekoedinger.com Managing editor Paris: Philippe Graff philippe@nicomagazine.com Fashion editor & Coordination: Angelina A. Rafii afsi@nicomagazine.com Art director: Maxime Pintadu maxime@INgrid.eu Interviews by Sven Ehmann, Philippe Graff, Merel Kokhuis, Jeremy Leslie, Andrew Losowsky, Kalonji Tshinza and Eva Wittocx Portrait photography by Sébastien Agnetti, Christian Aschman, Eric Chenal, Amber Gray, Andres Lejona, and Jussi Puikkonen.

Fashion photography by Anoush Abrar & Aimée Hoving, Steeve Beckouet, Anne Combaz, Wayn Kahn, Rosa und Gerlinde and Edwin Tsé.

Published by

Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg) www.mikekoedinger.com 10 rue des Gaulois, L-1618 Luxembourg (Europe) Phone: (00352) 29 66 18-1 Fax: (00352) 26 18 74 77 E-mail: office@mikekoedinger.com Postal address: PO Box 728, L-2017 Luxembourg (Europe) Advertising agent: TEMPO – www.tempo.lu Associate Manager: Aurelio Angius Associate Sales Manager: Francis Gasparotto Phone: (00352) 27 17 27 27 Fax: (00352) 26 29 66 20 E-mail: info@tempo.lu Worldwide distribution: distribution@nicomagazine.com Worldwide Subscriptions: www.nicomagazine.com Printed in Luxembourg by Faber – www.faber.lu Coverpaper: Planojet 300 grs Interior paper: Planojet 120 grs

Style by Aline de Beauclaire, Polly Errington, Edda Gudmundsdottir, Lorena Maza, KimDung Nguyen and Matthieu Pabiot.

Production and editing: Angelina A. Rafii, Duncan Roberts, Cynthia Schreiber Layout produced by INgrid – StudioForEditorialDesign SA www.INgrid.eu

Please Recycle

Have you finished with this magazine?

Archive it, pass it on to someone else or recycle it!

© Editions Mike Koedinger SA 2010 Luxembourg (Europe) Call for entries – writers, photographers, creatives visit www.nicomagazine.com and submit your work.

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Contributors ÅBÄKE åbäke is the collective name of P. Lacey, B. Reichen, K. Ståhl and M. Suzuki. They live and work in London since 2000 and would like to thank nico magazine for hosting Slow Alphabet (n), 2010 in this issue. http://abake.fr ANOUSH ABRAR & AIMEE HOVING Anoush from Iran and Aimée a Dutch national started working together as a team in 2004 after having finished art school. Their work has been exposed in several museums and galleries, including: “Musée de l’Elysée”, Switzerland, “Harold’s Gallery”, Los Angeles and “Maison européenne de la photographie”, Paris. Their photographs have been featured in W Magazine, French and Japanese Vogue, Vogue Hommes International, L’Officiel, Slash Magazine, New York Magazine, Tokion Magazine, Colors, Libération, Frame Magazine, Die Weltwoche, Das Magazin, Frog, Nico and Bolero. For nico they shot the series Lonely Afternoon. www.anoush.ch SÉBASTIEN AGNETTI Sébastien Agnetti splits his time between Paris and Switzerland. He started his career as an assistant at the prestigious ECAL (University of Art and Design of Lausanne). In 2004 he moved to Paris to satisfy his weakness for Art magazines. His work has been featured in many publications such as The Wire, Uomo Vogue, Citizen K, Das Magazin, Spex, Amusement, nico, Spray, Groove, Lurve. While working on celebrity and Lurve portraits and fashion, Sébastien likes to mix reality with the imaginary.

Profoundly influenced by cinema, he gives a lot of importance to the architectural environment as well as to the “sets” which make his photos look like freeze frames. For nico he shot both Thomas Erber and Mathieu Lehanneur. www.agnetti.li CHRISTIAN ASCHMAN Christian Aschman is a Luxembourgishborn photographer and based both in his home country and Brussels. His work spans from fashion photography to portraiture and architecture. Recent works include a large contribution to the book Mudam - le bâtiment de Ieoh Ming Pei followed by a stop motion video of the building, and a recent series on the construction line of the new Boeing 747-8F in Seattle. For nico, Christian went to meet artist Tina Gillen in her studio. www.christian-aschman.com

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STEEVE BECKOUET Steeve Beckouet is a fashion photographer from Paris who works exclusively on menswear; currently contributing to magazines such as Dazed & Confused, Volt, Rodeo, FHM Collections, So chic, Glam Cult, Idomenee...

Before starting photography, he was studying classical music at the Conservatory of Music in Paris and working on a Masters at the Sorbonne. Stumbling upon fashion through the pages of Vogue, he decided to change his calling, a year later he started his studies at Studio Berçot, but realised pretty fast that he was more attracted to creating images. Today he tries to create the same harmony in his shoots that one would find in musical compositions.

For nico he shot the series The Recluse. www.steevebeckouet.com ERIC CHENAL Eric Chenal has been a photographer since 2003 and works in Luxembourg.

He splits his time between commissioned works, which include portraiture, reportage and architecture, and his personal work. For nico he shot Harri Peccinotti’s portrait. www.blitz.lu ANNE COMBAZ Born in Tunis, Anne Combaz was raised between Tangier, Cairo and other Middle Eastern countries. Making her debut as a professional photographer in Egypt, she was sent in 2006 to Paris to cover the Fashion Week,and loved it so much she decided to stay. She is currently based in Paris, still shooting at the shows, but mostly backstage. She also spends some time polishing her editorial works for magazines. For nico she shot Fire walk with me. www.annecombaz.com SVEN EHMANN Sven Ehmann is a freelance creative director based in Berlin. He is passionate about turning information into stories and experiences and does that across all media - from books and magazines to digital media and exhibitions. He mainly works for art and design book publisher gestalten, but has also done projects like the redesign of italian Domus Magazine with design studio onlab or the visitors center for chemical company BASF with exhibition designers flying saucer. He currently consults on design and communications issues for an e-mobility start-up and plans some new releases on his personal publishing platform etc publications. For nico he interviewed Harri Peccinotti.

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PHILIPPE GRAFF Phillippe Graff was Sportswear Illustrated’s long-time correspondent in Paris, as well as having worked as an editor for many other publications in fashion, music and emerging sub cultures. He created the lifestyle magazine Spray, for which he was the editor in chief for nearly five years.

Philippe currently splits his time between print and web media while regularly collaborating with nico. In this edition he interviewed Thomas Erber.

AMBER GRAY Amber Gray is a photographer/director based in NYC. Her work often incorporates natural elements with surreal situations and humor. She is an Aquarian who does not believe in astrology.

Her favorite color is purple. For nico she shot her favorite face of the moment. www.ambergrayphotography.com WAYNE KAHN Wayne Kahn is a self-taught photographer currently working in London. In his commercial or private work, he seeks to create a link from the subject to the viewer. Inspired by Bob Carlos Clarke and Ellen Von Unwerth he loves to push boundaries and get everything out of his model. He is currently working on private projects looking to exhibit.

For nico he shot Sweet Swim.

Swim MEREL KOKHUIS Merel Kokhuis is an Amsterdam-based freelance journalist/editor.

Besides for nico she writes for Frame, Mark, Indesign, Elsevier Interieur and ELLE Wonen. She recently started editing books for literary Dutch publishers too. How amazingly different the worlds of books and magazines are! For this edition she interviewed both Mathieu Lehanneur and Kustaa Saksi.

ANDRÉS LEJONA Andrés Lejona has dedicated much of his work to reportage, portrait and editorial photography, while also carrying out projects in the field of author photography. His work has been exhibited in a variety of places including the Museum of Modern Art in Cartagena and the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá, in the “Grande Halle de la Villette” in Paris, France and more recently the exhibition Retour de Babel in Luxembourg. Mr. Lejona is currently preparing a series of exhibits where he will show architectural and landscape work, following his successful solo exhibit on portraiture in 2010 in Luxembourg. www.andreslejona.com

JEREMY LESLIE Jeremy Leslie runs magCulture, a company specialising in content design for print and digital media.

He is a passionate advocate for editorial design, regularly contributing to the creative press and international design conferences. He is one of the founders of the Editorial Design Organisation and a co-curator of the Colophon independent magazine conference.

For nico he interviewed both Mike Meiré and Mario Lombardo. Read his blog at www.magCulture.com/blog ANDREW LOSOWSKY Earlier this year, Andrew Losowsky created the magazine Stranded while waiting for the Icelandic volcano to stop erupting. Eventually, he made it home to the USA, where he watched his first roller derby six months ago. He wants to see more. Read his report for nico. www.losowsky.com JUSSI PUIKKONEN Jussi Puikkonen is the co-founder of Kasino A4 magazine, where he has been the Director of Photography since the magazine’s launch in 2005. He has been in group and private exhibitions since 2002. Puikkonen graduated in photography from Lahti University of Applied sciences Institute of Design in 2007. Puikkonen’s first book titled On Vacation was released by Edition Partick Frey in the Fall of 2008. Jussi currently lives and works in Amsterdam. For nico he shot Kustaa Saksi. www.jussipuikkonen.com ROSA UND GERLINDE Rosa and Gerlinde were both born and raised in Berlin. Their collaborative love affair was born in 2008. In their work they speak through a united voice, depicting both beauty and a sense of fancy in their photography. www.rosaundgerlinde.com EDWIN TSE Photographer Edwin Tse specializes in shooting fashion, portraits, music, entertainment and landscape subjects.

Originally hailing from Toronto, Canada, and previously having lived in London England, Edwin now resides in New York City for much of the year.

Edwin’s other talents include an uncanny knack for picking out cool sneakers, and the ability to exercise his encyclopedic knowledge of cartoon shows from the 1980’s. For nico he shot The Last Tango. www.edwintse.com

KALONJI TSHINZA Kalonji Tshinza is in his thirties and enjoys writing with Jay Dee or Prince playing in the background. There was a time when music replaced words, but since he has sworn to return to his first love. When time permits, he chronicles his joy and sadness on his daily blog tropikalo.blogspot.com. For nico he interviewed urban artist Spike.

EVA WITTOCX Eva Wittocx studied Art History at the University of Leuven and Warwick.

Between 1998 and 2006 she was curator at S.M.A.K., the museum for contemporary art in Ghent (B). Between 2006 and 2009 she worked in STUK Art Centre in Leuven where she was in charge of the exhibitions and the Playground festival. Since 2009 she has been chief curator in the new museum M in Leuven.

Eva Wittocx has contributed to many publications and regularly writes for art magazines. Read her interview with artist Tina Gillen. www.mleuven.be

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X Lonely Afternoonx q r Photographer: anoush abrar & aimée hoving Hair & Make-up: Francis Ases Stylist: Kim-Dung Nguyen

Model: Leona S @ Option Model

Agent Provocateur Black satin blindfold

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American Apparel White bodysuit Adidas Sneakers

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Alexander Wang at Vestibule White oversized T-shirt Adidas Sneakers

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Précis d’indépendance à l’attention du dandy postmoderne Passé par les plus excitantes aventures journalistiques de ces dix dernières années, il fallait à l’esthète reporter Thomas Erber plus qu’une accumulation d’objets pour dessiner les contours d’un goût contemporain élitiste et démocratique à la fois. De l’excellence à la portée de tous les curieux, ou comment réenchanter une vie de consommateur un brin blasé, voilà l’ambitieux défi que se propose de relever Le Cabinet de Curiosités installé chez Colette à partir du 29 novembre. Des Lumières au voyage ultime, une certaine façon d’appréhender le monde en somme.

Entretien de Philippe Graff. Portrait par Sébastien Agnetti

Les exégètes ont décelé dans la mode des Cabinets de Curiosités un goût pour l’hétéroclisme et l’originalité. De la Renaissance au 18e siècle, celui-ci fut consubstantiel aux découvertes humaines en général, et aux Nouveaux Mondes (Indes, Amériques) en particulier : le voyageur se constitua au fil des aventures des collections d’objets rares et originaux, avec pour seul fil rouge une curiosité aussi indéfectible que personnelle.

Médailles, antiquités, fossiles et animaux empaillés ont encombré plus d’un Cabinet européen avec une constance obsessionnelle pour les choses rares et bizarres. Jusqu’à ce que les musées prennent le relais, dans le sillage de Sir Hans Sloane, qui de sa collec-

tion très privée fit la base de ce qui deviendrait le British Museum.

Qu’un journaliste (très) rock et (très) mode redonne à cette discipline faussement surannée un sens contemporain, quoi de plus pop en somme à l’heure où d’autres se distinguent de l’uniformité par une déferlante de groupuscules Facebook aux objectifs parfois abscons. On évitera le name-dropping pour ne pas retenir de l’exercice de style(s) qu’un catalogue de contributions certes pertinentes, on s’attardera plutôt sur l’urgente modernité de l’affaire, quand les grands groupes du luxe n’en peuvent plus de stratégies marketing pour vendre des produits formatés aux cibles mondialisées.

Quels facteurs personnels vous ont poussé à reprendre le concept du Cabinet de Curiosités ?

L’origine du Cabinet de Curiosités remonte aux 11e, 12e siècles. Il y a eu dès l’origine, au-delà de la rareté des objets, une volonté de donner un nouveau sens à un monde en pleine mutation. Dès le développement des voyages et la découverte d’autres continents, les collectionneurs (des Italiens, des Allemands...) ont cherché à cultiver le lien entre l’art et la nature, en phase avec les nouvelles sources d’inspiration en vogue, la nature prenant une part importante dans l’inspiration des artistes de la Renaissance. Dans mes choix personnels en tant que journaliste, j’ai pris le parti, autant que faire se peut, de faire connaître de nouveaux groupes, de nouveaux créateurs ou encore cherché de nouvelles façons de voyager...

J’ai toujours cultivé l’idée de me lancer dans des aventures nouvelles et parfois incertaines, comme Jalouse, L’Optimum que j’ai contribué à lancer avec Michel Mallard et d’autres, ou encore L’Officiel Des Voyages, où l’on entendait parler des voyages d’une toute nouvelle façon. On retrouve dans les racines de ce Cabinet de Curiosités cet appétit pour les projets hors norme, les voyages et les objets un peu mystérieux. Le côté secret, exclusif et rare du Cabinet avait aiguisé ma curiosité, il se trouvait par ailleurs en résonance avec une volonté d’indépendance qui parcourt mes choix éditoriaux.

Insuffler de l’inattendu exactement comme à la Renaissance, faire rêver le consommateur et l’amener à prendre une part dans le choix de ses achats, ce sont différentes clés pour comprendre ce projet.

Une manière d’adapter au 21e siècle une vieille recette, de l’appliquer à des domaines dans lesquels j’ai une expertise.

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Quels sont ces domaines ?

J’ai eu la chance de pouvoir associer au projet des créateurs prestigieux de la mode, des chaussures et accessoires, des designers, quelques photographes ainsi qu’un jeu d’arcade contenant une cinquantaine de jeux cultes des années 80 ou encore quelques petites touches d’érotisme – un kit de bondage ultime, des boards de skate érotique (!). Tous ces intervenants partagent une même indépendance – réelle – (à l’exception de JaegerLeCoultre pour les montres), une manière de créer résolument portée par le savoir-faire plutôt que le savoir-vendre. Des artisans de prestige qui pérennisent des modes de production tournés vers la qualité et l’exclusivité. Le Cabinet de Curiosités retient ces caractéristiques, avec des

C’est un peu comme un bastion de résistance aux grands groupes mondialisés, où plutôt à leur leur manière de faire.

Backgammon hi-tech Deuce

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créations uniques pour chacun des participants.

C’est un peu comme un bastion de résistance aux grands groupes mondialisés, où plutôt à leur manière de faire. Lorsque Peter Nitz crée pour l’occasion un sac « écolier » dans un cuir vraiment très rare, on est dans des méthodes de production à l’opposé de celles de Gucci par exemple. Avec Nicolas Andreas Tarails, on retrouve un peu l’essence du Cabinet de Curiosités : celui-ci a conçu un bustier « sculpture », un véritable objet à exposer, plus un concept qu’un objet à vendre. Il était singulièrement important pour moi de donner une vitrine à ces créateurs indépendants, qui n’ont pas l’accès aux médias des grands groupes.

Vous revendiquez une sorte de contre-pouvoir au travers de cette démarche ?

Je soutiens à travers cet événement une alternative au luxe standardisé et, de même que dans mes papiers, je défends des artistes souvent obscurs. J’ai privilégié ici des créateurs dont la production est parfois saluée, mais qui sont peu visibles, car ils ne font pas de publicité et, par conséquent, sont peu sollicités par les magazines.

Je déjeunais l’autre jour avec un journaliste qui venait de décrocher un poste important dans un grand magazine anglais, il m’exprimait toute son excitation et sa fierté à l’idée de travailler avec les cinq plus grands photographes mondiaux. Toujours les mêmes en quelque sorte, alors que ce qui est intéressant, c’est de soutenir de nouveaux talents en qui l’on croit, de nouveaux styles, de nouvelles manières de faire. J’en ai fait moi-même l’expérience dans la presse au cours de ces dix dernières années, où l’offre a changé en profondeur, où la curiosité et l’indépendance ont cédé le pas à des modes de travail en conformité avec les annonceurs.

Tout de même, tous les créateurs présents ne sont pas victimes d’ostracisme ? Certains, comme Christophe Lemaire ou Surface To Air, sont au cœur de réseaux très porteurs et utiles en termes d’image et de médiatisation...

Bien sûr, certains créateurs peu médiatisés, car pas soutenus par des grands groupes, s’en sortent très bien par des vecteurs de communication différents ou émergents. Surface To Air, qui a créé pour nous une veste en cuir tatouée par Scott Campbell, ainsi que Christophe Lemaire, sont parfaitement capables d’utiliser leurs propres réseaux et d’exploiter à bon escient une image forte à laquelle un certain parfum d’underground ne nuit pas. Du reste, Surface To Air possède sa propre agence de conseil en communication et Christophe Lemaire joue avec discernement de sa double casquette – créateur de sa propre marque

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Jeux d’arcade

Pinel & Pinel

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1. Kit bondage Ylia fleeT 2. Colour Box aleXanDer olcH

(incl. pochette, cravate & noeud papillon reliés par un code couleur)

3. Sac de voyage arianne TunneY 4. Kit jean SuPerfine

5. Table basse by laQ avec motif marquetterie “dragon” 6. Lampe tronc by THoMaS leMuT adaptable à n’importe quelle hauteur de plafond

7. Diner jacket KiTSunÉ 8. Lunettes en écailles de tortue MaiSon BonneT

9. Sac écolier PeTer niTZ version homme et version femme

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qui ne fait pas de compromis et directeur artistique, auparavant chez Lacoste et aujourd’hui chez Hermès. Les deux créateurs de Kitsuné sont un bon exemple de cette communication un peu parallèle. J’aime bien cette dualité permanente dans leur marque – un Breton, Gildas, et un Japonais, Massaya, une marque de vêtements et un label de musique... Ils seront là avec une Diner Jacket créée pour l’occasion. Ces trois exemples sont un peu les spécialistes du buzz...

Il y a aussi Jaeger-LeCoultre, qui n’est pas précisément indépendant...

C’est le seul fabricant non indépendant (il fait partie du groupe de luxe suisse Richemont, ndlr). Je voulais absolument qu’il y ait une montre et cela m’a fait énormément plaisir de travailler avec eux.

Ils ont eu une réactivité optimale et ont créé pour

Je soutiens à travers cet évênement une alternative au luxe standardisé.

Veste en cuir

Surface To Air

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l’occasion une variante de la Memovox, montre culte des années 50 et 60. Trois exemplaires ont été fabriqués et seront en vente chez Colette, cela justifie l’événement !

Vous insistez beaucoup sur la notion d’indépendance. Quelles autres qualités sont requises pour créer un objet désirable ?

Pour sélectionner les créateurs qui seront présents, j’ai réagi un peu comme s’il s’agissait de monter ma garde-robe personnelle et, au-delà, un univers qui reflète mes aspirations. Le luxe est un domaine que je connais bien, les créations se distinguent par leur rareté, le savoir-faire, leur accessibilité également et aussi leur justesse et leur cohérence : l’idée est que la qualité, la rareté et le prix soient cohérents, que le prix par exemple ne soit pas un pur positionnement marketing. Lorsque vous achetez une chemise chez Yves SaintLaurent ou Balenciaga, vous déboursez au moins 200 à 300 euros. Cette même somme vous permettra de faire réaliser une chemise sur mesure chez Charvet. Pour que les choses soient rares, il convient de consacrer du temps et de la volonté à les trouver, avoir une démarche personnelle.

Envisagez-vous l’acheteur actuel comme dénué d’indépendance ?

Il y a dans les sociétés contemporaines une véritable régression de la possibilité de choix. Plus personne n’est réellement responsable. On assiste à une sorte de dématérialisation de la consommation, on induit tel ou tel besoin et les relais de la communication feront le reste. Cette déresponsabilisation rend la standardisation plus facile, lui fait un véritable boulevard ! Pensez, même si cet exemple est un peu banal, aux heures passées par tant de gens devant la télévision, dans une attitude de passivité totale... Responsabiliser les consommateurs, faire en sorte qu’ils découvrent les choses par eux-mêmes, comme une résultante de leur volonté, leur curiosité, leur goût, voilà le sens de ma vision d’une consommation intelligente.

Quel lien avez-vous avec les domaines représentés ?

Je suis un consommateur dans l’âme, je consacre du temps à trouver les choses rares, qui m’apporteront véritablement du plaisir. Je suis sensible aux notions évoquées dans la question précédente – justesse, cohérence... – mais aussi à leur beauté bien sûr et enfin à leur fonctionnalité. C’est une façon de consommer intelligent, de redevenir responsable dans l’acte d’achat, de ne pas subir : c’est un lien actif – à plus d’un titre, puisque ce sont pour la plupart les domaines dans lesquels j’exerce ma plume de journaliste – et non pas passif,

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Veste en cuir dos

Surface To Air

tatouĂŠe par Scott Campbell

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Montre Memovox

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comme le consumérisme actuel tend à l’imposer.

Pour ce qui est de la photo, j’ai eu l’occasion de travailler avec de très nombreux photographes dans les magazines auxquels j’ai collaboré. Ils apporteront tous une part très personnelle de leur travail, ayant trait au reportage ou au voyage, un autre aspect important du Cabinet. Quant à l’érotisme, il est doublement légitime puisqu’il participe de la fameuse sphère privée, du voyage intérieur très fantasmatique que les détenteurs de Cabinets de Curiosités cultivaient et par résonance, il est important dans ma vie également. La part de jeu et de rêve prend ici une dimension nouvelle, comme dans la mode, mais de manière plus intime. L’érotisme permet de suppléer au fardeau de la vie quotidienne. Les Londoniens de Fleet Ylia (Resha et Ylia Fleet en fait) ont créé un kit de bondage dans la droite ligne des vêtements et accessoires que l’on peut trouver dans leur boutique londonienne. Pour moi, ils sont un peu les Hermès du fétichisme !

Certains objets créés sont unisexes ?

J’ai remarqué que dans un couple (dans le mien tout au moins), la femme piquait facilement des pièces de la garde-robe de son mari. Le contraire demeure un peu plus difficile. J’aime bien l’idée des vêtements interchangeables, portés indif­féremment, mais de manière différente,

par l’homme ou la femme. Cela me convient que règne une certaine ambiguïté, associée à une dose d’atemporalité. Il y a eu l’époque héroïque des pantalons, des smokings portés par les femmes.

C’est un peu de cet esprit-là qu’il s’agit, appliqué au quotidien des années 2000.

Il y a aussi d’autres choses plus inattendues, comme un voyage ou un magazine...

J’ai eu l’occasion de beaucoup voyager, notamment pour L’Officiel des Voyages. Dans ce domaine également, une certaine uniformité règne. Or j’ai eu la chance, grâce à un ami initié, de participer à une cérémonie indienne aux États-Unis – le Sun Dance, un des sept rites sacrés des Indiens d’Amérique, conduit par un chaman. Cette expérience extrême de dépassement de soi m’a fait voir d’une autre manière les voyages que j’avais pu vivre jusqu’alors. J’ai eu l’idée de proposer un trip extrême, dans lequel surpassement de soi, sérénité et réconfort seraient les maîtres mots. Les participants qui auront choisi d’acheter ce voyage le découvriront au dernier moment. On est en train actuellement de le finaliser, comme de mettre la dernière main au magazine créé pour l’occasion.

Le Cabinet de Curiosités de Thomas Erber – 1re édition chez Colette du 29 novembre au 31 décembre 2010

Une manière d’adapter au vingt et unième siècle une vieille recette, l’appliquer à des domaines dans lesquels j’ai une expertise.

Bottes à lacets en cuir et alligator

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Photographer: ANNE COMBAZ Model: ELENA Make-up: CEDRIC JOLIVET @ B-agency Stylist: ALINE DE BEAUCLAIRE Special thanks to Adlane

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Drawing the Line His work is digital, but looks handmade.

Meet Amsterdam-based illustrator Kustaa Saksi from Finland: ‘Computer lines are always quite dead, hand drawn lines are alive.’

Interview by Merel Kokhuis. Portrait by Jussi Puikkonen.

Kustaa, can you please introduce yourself?

I’m a boy from Kouvola, a small village in eastern Finland, not too far from Helsinki. But there wasn’t much to do in Kouvola. Everybody with even a little bit of intelligence who grew up there wanted to escape the village as soon as possible.

When I was a child I always dreamed of being an architect, but unfortunately I was so bad at mathematics that it was mission impossible, and I lost my way a bit. I was afraid I couldn’t do what I wanted. All my grades were fine, except in mathematics. So I decided to do the one particular thing that I am good at; drawing. I went to art school in Lahti (The Lahti Institute of Design) and started out with drawings for some T-shirts.

That was at the time when the entire graphics industry moved from paper to computer. I’m thankful that the school invested a lot of money in new hard- and software. Of course the computers were slow and we used PhotoShop 1.5, but at least we learned how to work with computers from the start.

And what did you do when you graduated?

I never expected to become a full time illustrator. After school I worked for a year as a graphic designer in a design office. I created corporate identities and other really classical graphic design work, but I soon realised it wasn’t the right job for me. Later I worked as an art director for a Finnish magazine, also just for one year. I liked that a lot

because it was a more social job, I was able to work with many different people such as photographers, editors and graphic designers. But that was more about management than being creative.

So in the end I decided I wanted to create more myself, to create my own little world, and I started working as an independent illustrator within the comfort of a creative collective in Helsinki.

But now you’re based in Amsterdam. What happened?

After working in Helsinki for some time, I really felt the need to work and live abroad. Finland is beautiful, but also boring. Not much happens there. And most people are not as kind as anywhere else in Europe. That is easily explained if you look at the weather in Finland. From September to May it’s cold and dark, so people get a bit depressed. So my girlfriend at that time (who was involved in the fashion industry) and I decided to move to Paris. We didn’t speak any French – so it was a bit like suicide - but it just felt logical for us to go there. And let’s be honest, I think every artist feels the urge to live in Paris. It has always been, and will always be, the place to be for creative people. It’s this romantic feeling the city evokes. And we had an absolutely great time. We planned to go there for six months, but in the end we stayed for four years.

What influence did your time in Paris have on your work?

My girlfriend took me to all these fashion shows and introduced me to the world of patterns. My pattern-like images are probably inspired by everything I saw in the fashion world of Paris. And, funnily enough, I started to draw mountains when I was in Paris. There’s no mountain in Paris, so I don’t know where that came from, but I just had a mountain theme going on at that time. It might look strange that I went to France when I was such a great fan of Dutch typography, but it just felt like I had to go to magical Paris first. After four years it was time to

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move to Amsterdam, where I found a great studio, right on top of an old chocolate factory. I’ve been here for three years now, and don’t feel the need to move again. Amsterdam is the city I’ll stay in for a while. I love the kindness of the people and the creative atmosphere on the streets.

Everyday life is relaxing here. And since I have international clients and agents, it doesn’t really matter where I’m based.

How would you describe your current work?

I’m a one hundred percent image boy. I don’t like too much text, especially not in my images.

When I draw I feel confident, but when I write I become insecure. Sometimes I try to include text in my work and every now and then it might look nice the first week, but later on I feel ashamed and can no longer appreciate it. And I like it when the images can speak for themselves. There is one successful job that includes texts, and that I’m proud of, but that was a collaboration with a copywriter. This was an ad campaign for Nike that included results of research into the differences between men and women’s feet. We

included texts like; “Did you know that a woman has a narrower heel and less mass in the heel pad than a man?” Or; “Did you know that a woman’s foot is more flexible than a man’s?”

How long does it take you to complete an illustration? Are you easily satisfied or do you change it a million times?

It depends on my mood. Sometimes it all goes extremely fast and well. But sometimes I have an inspiration-poor week and cannot draw at all.

When this happens it’s not smart to keep trying.

It’s better to go out and wander around the city hoping to find new inspiration. I don’t specifically search for inspiration in museums. Most of the time it’s better to just relax and do nothing. In my work I am a perfectionist, but in other aspects in life I could, and should, be more of a perfectionist.

Your work is made on a computer but looks like it’s hand drawn. How is that possible?

Since my teachers in art school told me how to draw with the computer, I use the computer all

I use brighter colours than Mother Nature, probably to escape the greyish colours of the Finnish landscapes

the time. But because I like the imperfection of hand drawn images, I use a digital pad and a pen.

So I draw on my pad and save the digital document on my computer. It’s actually a new form of art, because you can no longer speak of the original piece. The original piece is a digital document on my computer that I can print as often as I wish.

The lines are hand-drawn by me; the coloured surfaces are added in the computer. And most of the time I print on silkscreen paper in order to make it look even more like manual work, more human. Computer lines are always quite dead, hand-drawn lines are alive. And in my opinion small mistakes make the difference, and make everything look nice.

Is it still art if there is no limit to the print run?

I think illustration is now more or less similar to digital photography. You either choose to make just one piece or you decide to make a limited print run of, let’s say, twenty numbered pieces.

But unfortunately illustration is still not a one hundred percent accepted art form. Old style galleries, for example, don’t want to represent illustrators. My type of art is more a pop-art kind of art and being represented by an old-fashioned gallery doesn’t fit the image. A gallery that represents classical oil paintings will never show illustrations. The galleries I work with are a bit more underground or progressive. But I have the feeling things in the gallery world are changing as we speak. More and more artists use digital media to express themselves and gallery owners are slowly adapting to that. It was the same with photography in the past. That wasn’t considered an official art form in the beginning, but it’s completely accepted and respected worldwide nowadays.

Do you prefer exhibitions of free work or commercial work with a brief?

I don’t really think like that, and never have.

And there’s actually no real difference between the two. I don’t want to put people in boxes as a real artist or a commercial artist. If the commercial brief is interesting and challenging, the job will be as exciting and creative as free work. As long as the brief is open and the art director is not too involved and demanding, I’m happy. Any creative person can be an artist. The old way of thinking is that artists should suffer (no money, no relationship, no decent apartment) in order to make art, and I think that perspective is completely out of date. But it’s hard to get rid of that old-fashioned idea, because it’s been around for such a long time. For me art is not about suffering, it’s about creation. Maybe some people might

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Octopus (2007)

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Sea Pig’s Night Out (2008) 52

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say it’s bad for your artistic career to do commercial work, but if it feels right an artist should do whatever job he can get. Also, in the end, we all need money to pay the bills.

Should we look at digital illustrations like we look at oil paintings?

I think we should look at all images in the same way. With an eye for art, in a way. Everybody can look at images exactly as they want to. We can all look at an image the way we want, let the image speak to us and interpret it in our own way. And I’m not just talking about art as we know it, but about any image in the world. Take the images on Japanese or other Asian packaging, for example. I can very much appreciate the way they are made, even though it’s commercial. They can do really crazy things there.

How does your work reach the customer?

Pretty soon after I started working as an independent illustrator I decided to work with Unit, a Dutch agency for creative people. They represent my work and commission international jobs for me. That was a huge help because at that time Finland was still a pretty isolated country; plus illustration was not as common as it is now. It would have been impossible to contact wellknown magazines without the help of Unit. Later I added Dutch Uncle (an expression for someone who knows everything better) from London and recently Hugo and Marie from New York to my network of agents. Thanks to those three agencies I’m able to concentrate on the creative part of my work. They go and visit ad agencies, magazines and other creative companies to show my portfolio. I don’t like to sell myself, I am not very good at it and I am happy I don’t have to waste time doing that now. It’s also possible to enter competitions in order to get a job, but most of the time the work is boring because nobody dares to go to extremes. The work is always a concession.

For what kind of clients do you work?

I try to do at least one personal exhibition per year to show my free work in order to discover what I really want to do and make. And besides that my agents arrange jobs for me for fashion brands like Levi’s, Issey Miyake, Nike, Diesel and Comme des Garçons. And I’ve also done a lot of illustrations for publications such as Playboy, Wallpaper and The New York Times, and for music companies like MTV and Catskill Records. Most of the time the job is to hand in an illustration or pattern that can be used on shoes or clothes, but sometimes my work moves from 2D to 3D. For Nike, for example, I created a commercial but artistic

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looking installation to show the development of Nike’s running shoes over the past decades. I like all industries (fashion, publishing and music industry) equally. As long as the job is challenging I don’t care what kind of company it is. But at the moment I am working for US telecoms company AT&T and for Microsoft. I only hope it will not only be computer-related companies that contact me in the future. I also hope the fashion industry never stops contacting me. And if I ever get the chance to create the decor for Jennifer Lopez’s Just Sweet fashion brand again, and am able to meet her one more time, that will be amazing.

abstract, happy and sad or art nouveau and pop art.

There can be many bright colours in one drawing, but it’s often combined with a huge amount of blackness. And I really like to include some little twists. My patterns look quite classical from a distance, but take a closer look and you discover tiny jokes or unexpected images. Some time ago I made a normal looking pattern with crabs for a Parisian art magazine, but some of the crabs turn out to be playing a guitar if you look closely. I am also inspired by things other than nature and fashion.

One of my more recent images is based on an icon of an Admiral I found in St. Petersburg.

I see three types of images in your portfolio landscapes, patterns and characters. The patterns, as you said before, probably come from your time in Paris. But where do the landscapes and characters have their origin?

It’s not that I did landscapes first, then patterns and then characters; I have always done all three.

But I’m sure the mainly horizontal landscapes are based on the views I had in Finland when I was younger. You don’t have to try hard to recognise the Finnish wilderness – which is around everywhere when you’re in Finland - in my work, but I did change it drastically. I use brighter colours than Mother Nature, probably to escape the greyish colours of the Finnish landscapes. And there’s always a contradiction in my work. It can be messy and clean at the same time, but also organic and

Do you think you will continue being an illustrator until you retire?

I really, really hope so. And I know I will always do something visual, but maybe not full-time all the time. Until now I still like everything I do.

And as long as little things change I think I can be satisfied for a long time. Quite recently I made some characters that a friend of mine from London turned into 3D objects for the Heroes exhibition at Maxalot in Amsterdam. My friend used a rapid prototyping machine to create the objects.

The first time I saw my computer renderings come to life it was, in fact, an orgasmic experience for me. I’m determined to explore this field more in the near future. www.kustaasaksi.com

The first time I saw my computer renderings come to life it was an orgasmic experience

Guardsman (2009)

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It’s Like a Jungle

Sometimes (2007)

Sticky Mosquitos (2009)

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Have You Fed

the Fish? (2009)

City of Feet

Installation – Nike (2009)

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Bonsai Tree in Neon Samsung (2008)

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Archipelago

Gentry Portofino (2006)

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Forest Dusk (2008)

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Plato’s Collection

«Geometry existed before the creation» Plato

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Amila Hrustic attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the department for Product design. In 2007 she won the first prize in a competition for the architetural and urban design of a pedestrian bridge linking the Academy of Fine Arts and Radiceva street in Sarajevo.

In 2010, she became part of SUB magazine’s team, exhibited at the Interior and Furniture Fair in Sarajevo and curated 4 Tuned Cities - Independent film and visual art festival. www.amila.ba The inspiration behind "Plato's Collection" is Plato’s Platonic solids, consisting of five unique dresses handcrafted from a combination of textiles and paper.

It examines the concept of geometrically arranged and structured space in relation to the human body, the relationship between artificial and organic, amorphous and geometric. Each of the five Platonic solids is a basic building element for making dresses.

Design: Amila Hrustic

Dress construction: Milan Senic Photographer: Irfan Redzovic Model: Lana Pasic

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Visual artisans If it is a coincidence that Mario Lombardo and Mike Meiré both started their careers in Cologne, it is perhaps less surprising that they each cite British music and record sleeve design as influential on their work. A central part of both men’s graphic design practice has been editorial design, and magazine and record sleeve design have long shared an ability to create and reflect subcultures and trends. Sometimes, over time, the content – the music, the words – fades in importance; but the presentation remains influential. Now, with first the smaller CD format, and currently the MP3, music design has all but disappeared, leaving magazines as the one medium recording these fleeting graphic moments.

Interview by Jeremy Leslie. Portrait illustration by Maxime Pintadu based on photography

by Michael Mann (Mario Lombardo) Heiji Shin (Mike Meire).

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Meiré made his name with the business Lombardo spent four years designing magazines Brand Eins, and has recently music magazine Spex and also created caused a stir with his redesign of 032c. the tabloid Liebling.

Both men have monographs about their work published this winter. I asked them about design, music and their relationship with magazines.

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What was the first magazine you remember reading as a child?

It was called Rocky, Germany’s most popular teenage magazine. It was about music and adolescence, the struggle of growing up. I liked the posters in each issue. I was a complete fan of The Sweet and Marc Bolan from T.Rex. The walls of my room were covered with silver foil, just to stick every article I could get on it. Over time it became one huge collage. I wish I had pictures of that. Some insane teenage hell of being a fan.

What was the first magazine you remember reading as a child?

I was drawn to magazines at an early age and started collecting them when I was 14. There weren’t many good magazines in Germany but the one that incited passion in me was Tempo, a magazine that drew inspiration from The Face. I was excited by the mixing of different styles and topics. Starting from Tempo I quickly discovered The Face, Interview, and iD, which were hard to come by back then. I bought them on field trips or had friends bring me copies from London.

How did that magazine influence your future interest in magazines?

I have no idea. Maybe the fact of dreaming myself into the world of pop and fantasy. Every week a new issue to kill time and beaming yourself somewhere else. There were no mobiles, no internet, and these teenage magazines were somehow the key to the world at that time. We had something to talk about at school.

All these different bands helped us shape our identity.

I remember my brother Marc was listening to Pink Floyd while I was listening to those glamrock bands and we had some serious issues about it. A few years later when we published our own magazine, Apart, we focussed mainly on music alongside art and design. So, one could say that everything started through music, the culture, the bands, the record sleeves.

How did that magazine influence your future interest in magazines?

At some point I had forgotten all about it. Other things in my life had become more interesting. Only when I started to think about design in more professional terms did Tempo resurface again, and I sought out the former Tempo creatives to learn from them. In the 1990s I worked with Lo Breier, Tempo’s first art director. And I continue to do projects with Markus Peichl, original inventor and first editor-in-chief of Tempo, one of them being Liebling.

Did you study graphic design?

After a one year internship at an advertising agency in Düsseldorf, I attended a school in Cologne for graphic and industrial design. I developed my skills in several artistic disciplines and learned a lot about the history of art. But I have to say that making my own magazine every other night gave me the confidence to do my own work. It was really “learning by doing”.

I was able to instantly combine my theoretical input from school with practical experience.

Did you study graphic design?

I enrolled in design school in the mid 1990s in Aachen, a small city near Cologne, but rarely attended class because I felt the school to be too old-fashioned. Parallel to my studies I designed the local city paper. It helped me a lot. I was given the chance to try different things as the publisher was also part of a printing plant.

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LIEBLING culture and fashion magazine Unbound newspaper format (From 2007 to 2009)

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032C Magazine for contemporary culture (From 2000 -)

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Tell me about your love of music; what were the first records you bought, and how did their sleeves inspire you?

With the early records from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, especially Peter Saville’s artwork for “Architecture & Morality”, suddenly presence felt somehow different. I was already fascinated with the Bauhaus movement – the architecture, the furniture, the art and dance performances – but I didn’t expect to find the historical visual codes of an avantgarde movement in a contemporary context like pop. Eileen Gray’s designs pushed my sensibility towards the power of the avant-garde, too. Other music; Joy Division/New Order, Ultravox, Depeche Mode, Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, just to name a few, all influenced by Kraftwerk’s timeless “Man-Machine” and “Computerworld” and their unforgettable TV performances as robots...when attitude becomes form.

Design was rising.

You love music; what were the first records you bought, and how did their sleeves inspire you?

That’s embarrassing – my first single was Yazoo’s “Don’t Go”. My elder sister liked the song. My first albums were

by Michael Jackson and Frankie Goes To Hollywood, soon followed by The Cure. Then I discovered Joy Division whose album “Unknown Pleasures” was my first encounter with the magic that arises when the right combination of design and music meet. I listened to the album again and again while staring enraptured at the beautiful cover design by Peter Saville. It was like a gateway to a different world.

Who are your heroes?

Bauhaus, Beuys and Bacon. And of all time, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol.

But I wouldn’t call them my heroes - rather a never-ending source of inspiration.

Who were/are your heroes?

I currently adore no one, although there are quite a few designers whose work I have come to appreciate immensely.

Especially those that do not follow trends, but are true auteurs and whose work keeps influencing current design. When I started to really delve into my passion for music and magazine design, many of their great purveyors inspired me. Magazine designers like Alexey Brodovich and Henry Wolf, but also more current ones like Neville Brody, Fernando Gutierrez and Fabien Baron were important for me. And of course Peter Saville.

Do you see a link between your interest in music and magazines? Do record sleeve design and magazine design share common factors/roles?

In the end it’s about an attitude. Music and magazines are interesting when they convey an attitude about our times. Then we like to read and look at them. We like to listen to them.

Do you see a link between your interest in music and magazines? Does record sleeve design and magazine share common factors/roles?

Absolutely, I see many similarities. During my time at Spex I was lucky to be able to combine my two passions. One of my objectives was to lend the magazine the same engaging aura great album design can achieve, at its best being both aesthetically breathtaking and visualising the music’s theme.

Describe how Apart magazine started In 1983 we printed our first black and white issue after planning a redesign of a student paper by our friend Robert Haller at that time. We were very passionate about what we were doing and met so many interesting people. We got calls from agencies and opened our office in 1986. I was still going to design school and worked all night long. I was late every morning and the director wanted to kick me out. Only a presentation of our own magazine Apart could convince him. After 11 issues we finished Apart, the eighties were over.

For the next decade the nineties I called the magazine Ad2G, Apart the second generation. My first design on an Apple computer. But we only published one issue – our agency got too big.

How did you get your first job as a magazine designer?

As mentioned, during my studies I worked for the local city paper. I had to lay out the publication on my own and as sole designer take full responsibility. Not only did it quickly teach me how to design, but also how to manage time and content. Ending up at Spex only came about via many detours and with lots of luck. After receiving my diploma I only sent out two applications: one to Spex and one to Meiré und Meiré. Spex already accepted me during the interview, Meiré sent a rejection.

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Do you remember Mario Lombardo applying for a job at Tell us the story about that rejection by Mike Meiré – what your studio? was the job you applied for? Which magazines of his did you No. Did he? admire?

That wasn’t such a big deal. I don’t even know if Mike remembers it. After I was done with school there weren’t that many. I applied to Mike for the position of an art director.

They hadn’t advertised the role – I just tried.

In my opinion, Mike’s studio is responsible for important new developments every year. But their rejection was not a disaster. Mike simply had no vacancy and I had just received the acceptance from Spex.

Do you regard yourself as a ‘magazine designer’?

Do you regard yourself as a ‘magazine designer’?

I prefer art director. I have this permanent conflict in definNo. Or put differently: maybe also. I focused for quite some ing what I do because I simply do several disciplines. I love to time on designing magazines. Looking at the situation now, create and I like the feel, the sound and smell of freshly printed I regard myself more as a designer working across all fields. paper. I grew up with magazines, and they remain part of my everyday life.

Do you see a difference between general graphic design Do you see a difference between general graphic design and magazine design? and magazine design?

I believe whenever someone gives you a chance to do someMagazine design is a part of graphic design, with very spething, give it your best shot. Otherwise don’t do it. cial requirements. It unites different design branches like typography, illustration, or photography in one medium.

I see common elements in your designs. How would you describe you magazine work? Do you have a ‘style’?

I always wanted to avoid a personal style. I am interested in the changing identities from magazine to magazine. To me it seems much more exciting to slip into various characters. e.g.

I behave differently when I do Brand Eins or 032c. I listen to different music and prefer to work at night when it’s time again for 032c. It’s a kind of method acting.

I see common elements in your designs. How would you describe your magazine work? Do you have a ‘style’?

That is often said about me, but I have difficulties assessing myself. I have preferences and important themes I like to convey.

It’s always about finding the right solution that will reach as many people as possible and manages to evoke images in the reader/ observer. I do this by layering. The first level is attractiveness, the appearance. The second level is the word - typography, headline, copy. Combined well, these two levels result in another level of imagination, the meta level. This is always my ambition.

Is there such a thing as a German editorial style/look?

Is there such a thing as a German editorial style/look?

I would like to pass on this question to those blogs where There is a certain dryness in German magazines that, though graphic designers have specific opinions about this topic.

I like it and sometimes coyly play with, I do not pursue. It is 100% precise, determined by function, opposing organic forms and principles. I turned my back on this early on. Instead I combine it with craftsmanship – doing things by hand in order to add a human element to this German objectivity.

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SPEX Independent music magazine (From 2001 to 2005)

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In the end, it’s about an attitude.

Music and magazines are interesting when they convey an attitude about our times.

Then we like to read and look at them.

We like to listen to them.

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The first level is attractiveness, the appearance.

The second level is the word - typography, headline, copy.

Combined well, these two levels result in another level of imagination, the meta level.

This is always my ambition.

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BRAND EINS a german economics monthly

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What is the vital part of magazine design – inspiration or What is the vital part of magazine design – inspiration or hard work? hard work?

Both. First you have to take a decision about your ideas and Undoubtedly both. Without hard work no magazine will hit the then you have to execute them. newsstand. And without inspiration you couldn’t work in this parti­ cular field of work either. And there’s another important point that makes a magazine special – the joint effort of the people involved.

This dedicated collaboration forms the DNA of the magazine.

Name the favourite piece of magazine work you have designed.

I am working on a book about my last 25 years of editorial design. It’s really hard to nail down one timeless icon. Maybe, in general, the economy magazine Brand Eins for the German market and 032c for the foreign markets. But, at the same time, every morning I very much enjoy getting the NZZ, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, which we recently redesigned. Having designed a framework for the everyday world actions is very satisfying.

Name the favourite piece of magazine work you have designed.

For one, the interviews in Liebling, in which I tried to emphasise the tone of the interview with type in different sizes. Another favourite is the 300th issue of Spex, at a time when the whole team had collectively quit. I used confetti collages to convey the notion that it had been a great party.

As the type of project you work on has broadened, have you maintained a love for magazines or are they less interesting to you today?

I love doing magazines. The instant feedback is amazing.

You do it and you are part of the cultural flow. It’s fantastic!

These often magic-speedy-trial-and-error-moments are so energetic for the way I like to work. I don’t want to miss that.

As the type of project you work on has broadened, have you maintained a love for magazines or are they less interesting to you today?

Magazines are still my first love. I am rather miffed that I am not designing one at the moment.

Describe your studio space.

Describe your studio space.

We have just moved into a 180 square metre loft in Berlin A permanent factory-life-workshop-lab-installation-workflow. Orchestrated chaos. People, voices, urban noises. Kreuzberg. It’s exactly the opposite of the last studio. We’ve left everything unpolished. Our tables are blackboards. When Music. furnishing the studio I imagined those wonderful French restaurants, charming yet always a bit chaotic, at the same time exquisitely chosen and authentic. As soon as you enter the place you know you will be served a special treat.

How many people work in your studio? And how many work on magazines?

Around 50 in Cologne and six in Berlin. It depends as well on the projects. Only three or four designers work on the magazines. They sit as close as possible to me. I still overlook nearly every page we design.

How many people work in your studio? And how many work on magazines?

I currently employ seven people. When designing magazines we often rotate as we are all ardent magazine lovers. The most important pillar is my editor Marie-Sophie Müller. She approaches things from an editorial stance, but possesses an immense visual imagination as well. I guess it’s the other way around with me. That’s why we are such a good team.

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How do you work with your team – do you manage your ideas through them or do hands-on design yourself?

During the Brand Eins production phase I spend two days every month in Hamburg with my laptop, so I do some designs myself. But over the last few years I have managed to explain my ideas to designer Tim Giesen. He knows exactly how I think about editorial design. Wherever I am he emails me PDFs to check. It’s an incredibly efficient work balance between us. I love to destroy the first draft after we have worked with it as a parameter for following pages, then I insist on keeping bits of older steps, moments of combinations I couldn’t have come up with during the definition of the first look. During this period of getting the issue together I like being silly on the computer, behaving like a dilettante just to make sure we are able to bring in ideas out of the blue, to create interesting backward- and forward-looking designs.

How do you work with your team – do you manage your ideas through them or do hands-on design yourself?

Most of the time I have an idea and develop a concept, some grids and typefaces, and so on. I can only reluctantly part from hands-on work. I simply like designing and developing things too much. I love my job and quickly form a visual solution. The route we take to reach this solution differs though. I greatly value the opinions and ideas of my staff.

How did you get involved with 032c?

Joerg Koch needed a new art director after Petra Langhammer became a mother again.

And he felt the time was right for a radical change. So we met in Cologne and were immediately partners in crime.

How did you get involved with Liebling?

Götz Offergeld, who in the beginning made the magazine all by himself, called me after the first issue and asked if I wanted to become its art director. Shortly afterwards Markus Peichl joined the project and together we made the magazine a critical success.

What are your favourite magazines today? Name them and describe why.

Pin-up, because of the name and this oppositional combination of sex and architecture.

Art Forum has the best gallery ads in the best format. Fantastic Man. The men’s market was starving for a concept like this.

Juergen Teller is the best photographer out there. Just look at this energetic Bryan Ferry portrait on the recent cover. Purple Fashion. The most notorious naked girls by Terry Richardson and the most beautiful naked girls by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. I enjoy reading Olivier Zahms editorials.

What are your favourite magazines today? Name them and describe why.

I like the current state of affairs as passion and vision have become the key prerogatives again. For many years it hasn’t been as much fun to go into magazine stores as now, a real plethora of independent magazines is surfacing, all with special formats, haptics, ideas, and topics. I like A, Pin-up, Volt, Apartamento, Metal, Sang Bleu, S, Richardson, Kilimanjaro, Foam, Kultur und Gespenster, Deins (especially their wonderfully illustrated covers), Ein Magazin über Orte, all the magazines orbiting around Gert Jonkers and Jop van Bennekom. And of course 032c and Purple remain great statements.

What magazine projects are you currently designing?

Unfortunately, I don’t design a periodic magazine at the moment. There are special issues I do, like the current issue of Mono.Kultur and different publications for Zitty (a Berlin based city paper). I still haven’t buried the hope that Liebling will wake from its hibernation.

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Design for the exhibition WELTWISSEN Berlin art museum Martin-gropius-Bau

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FEUILLETON

Montag, 17. Mai 2010 ďż˝ Nr. 111 INTERNATIONALE AUSGABE

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Alban Bergs ÂŤWozzeckÂť bei den Wiener Festwochen

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Hans Josephsohns Werk im Kesselhaus in St. Gallen

Consulting-Training vor venezianischer Kulisse

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Im Pariser Mus´ee d’Orsay lässt sich das Labyrinth von Verbrechen und Strafe besichtigen

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Crime et chˆatiment heisst eine grosse, facettenreiche Ausstellung im Mus´ee d’Orsay. Die nicht nur kßnstlerischen Exponate stammen aus den zweihundert Jahren, die zwischen der FranzÜsischen Revolution und der Abschaffung der Todesstrafe in Frankreich liegen.

Uwe Justus Wenzel Das erste Bild zeigt die Urszene der Gewalt. Auf den leblos fahlen KÜrper seines am Boden liegenden Opfers zurßckblickend, flieht der Täter. In den Augen Kains flackert noch Mordlust, aber sie verraten auch ein aufkommendes Entsetzen ßber die eigene Untat. Ein Entsetzen, das sich in den Gesichtern der beiden beflßgelten Figuren spiegelt, die ßber der dßsteren Szene schweben und im Begriffe sind, dem BrudermÜrder nachzusetzen. Die Gerechtigkeit und die gÜttliche Rache verfolgen in Pierre Paul Prud’hons Gemälde (aus der Zeit um 1815) Schulter an Schulter den Urverbrecher. Die Gerechtigkeit, Kain im Visier, holt zum Schwerthieb aus. Die Rache wirkt indes nicht ganz so entschlossen. Sie trägt zwar in der einen Hand die Fackel des gÜttlichen Zorns und greift mit der anderen nach dem Fliehenden; doch sie blickt dabei ihre Schwester Gerechtigkeit von der Seite – fragend? – an. Beinahe scheint es nun, als halte sie die Hand schßtzend ßber den Ruchlosen.

Robert Badinter und Jean Clair Der Gott des Alten Testaments hat die seine tatsächlich schßtzend ßber den BrudermÜrder gehalten – nicht um Kains Tat zu rechtfertigen, aber um den zur Strafe von seinem Acker Gejagten, den Verbannten und aus der menschlichen Gemeinschaft Ausgeschlossenen davor zu bewahren, als Vogelfreier seinerseits totgeschlagen zu werden.

Das Kainsmal ist beides: das Zeichen des Verfemten wie das Zeichen des unter gÜttlichem Schutz Stehenden. Der alttestamentliche Gott war kein Befßrworter der Todesstrafe – zumindest in dieser Urszene nicht, die, neben anderen Urschuld-Szenen, mehrfach vergegenwärtigt wird in dem schmalen und schwarzen Eingangsraum der Pariser Ausstellung Crime et chatiment. ˆ

Ein ebenso beeindruckendes wie bedrßckendes Labyrinth aus Verbrechen und Strafe kann im Musee ´ d’Orsay betreten, wer die Warteschlangen am Seineufer hinter sich gelassen hat. Kunst und Literatur, Wissenschaft und Kriminaltechnik, Psychologie und Sensationspresse bestßcken einen Irrgarten des Menschlichen und Unmenschlichen, durch den mehr als nur ein einziger roter Faden gelegt ist. Der initiierende Gedanke scheint allerdings nur einer und einfach gewesen zu sein.

Robert Badinter, Inspirator der Ausstellung, Rechtsgelehrter und unter Präsident Mitterrand Justizminister, hat ihn – schlichter noch als in seinem ErÜffnungsessay fßr den opulenten Katalog – in einem Gespräch mit dem Kunstmagazin des Figaro formuliert: Der Mensch trage einen Todes- und TÜtungstrieb in sich; der finde seinen Ausdruck auch in einer Justiz, die den MÜrder tÜtet. Wesentlich dem Engagement von Monsieur Abolition, wie Badinter zuzeiten genannt wurde, ist zu verdanken, dass in Frankreich die Todesstrafe 1981, endlich, abgeschafft worden ist.

Wie Verbrechen und Strafe, Schuld und SĂźhne einander auch auf unheimliche, ÂŤallzumenschlicheÂť Weise korrespondieren – dem geht ÂŤCrime et chatimentÂť ˆ nun aber in unterschiedlichsten Aspekten nach. Zudem beleuchtet die durch ĂœberfĂźlle sich auszeichnende Schau nicht ausschliesslich diesen untergrĂźndigen Zusammenhang. Unter der FederfĂźhrung von Jean Clair ist eine Ausstellung komponiert worden, die Phantasien, Phantasmen und Obsessionen in ihrem Realitätsgehalt sichtbar macht, die manche SchĂśnheit, jedenfalls Faszination des Schrecklichen, aber auch das nackte Grauen zeigt. Aus den knapp zweihundert Jahren, die sich von der FranzĂśsischen Revolution bis zur Abschaffung der Todesstrafe erstrecken, stammen die allermeisten Exponate: hochkarätige Gemälde, Zeichnungen, auch Skulpturen von Blake, Cezanne, ´ Delacroix, Daumier, Degas, Dix, FĂźssli, Gericault, ´ A. Giacometti, Goya, Grosz, Magritte, Masson, Picasso, Redon, Schiele, Stuck, Toulouse-Lautrec, Vallotton, Warhol und anderen (auch weniger Bekannten); ausserdem illustrierte Zeitschriften mit faits divers der gruseligen Sorte, Zeugnisse aus den Laboratorien der Wissenschaft, Tatort-Fotografien und Täter-Typologien der Kriminologie noch nicht so lange vergangener Zeiten.

Die FranzĂśsische Revolution war ein Wendepunkt in mancherlei Hinsicht, aber in einer nicht:

Die Todesstrafe wurde, anders als einige Aufklärer es gefordert hatten, nicht aufgehoben. Dafßr aber wurde auf Antrag des Arztes und Politikers Joseph-Ignace Guillotin ein sodann nach ihm benanntes Enthauptungsgerät eingefßhrt, ein Fallbeil, mit dem von nun an verurteilte Kapitalverbrecher effizient und human vom Leben zum Tode zu befÜrdern waren. Unterschiede zwischen Ständen und Klassen wurden keine mehr gemacht. Die grausamen Folterungen und Torturen, die – abgestuft nach Schwere des zu sßhnenden Verbrechens und sozialer ZugehÜrigkeit des Delinquenten – vor der Revolution ßblich waren, wurden verboten.

Das mechanische ÂŤMesser der GleichheitÂť war, so gesehen, zweifellos ein zivilisatorischer Fortschritt.

Doch das alte Theater der Marter, wie Foucault es in ÂŤĂœberwachen und StrafenÂť eindringlich und kĂźhl als ein Ritual der mitunter exzessiven Rache des absolutistischen Souveräns an dem Verbrecher beschreibt, der mit seinem Verbrechen immer auch die Majestät des Herrschers verletzt hatte, machte einem anderen Ăśffentlichen Spektakel Platz. Die Revolutionsregierung setzte die neue TĂśtungsmaschine in Gang, um sich ihrer politischen Gegner zu entledigen und Schrecken zu verbreiten. Die Grande Terreur kostete bis zum Sturz Robespierres im Juli 1794 vielen Menschen das Leben; Ăźber achtzehntausend liessen es auf dem BlutgerĂźst, das stets von Schaulustigen umstanden war.

Der Schrecken pflanzte sich auch nach der Schreckensherrschaft fort. Als wollten sie ihn bannen, schufen Kßnstler des 19. Jahrhunderts detailgenaue Bilder von kÜrperlosen KÜpfen sonder Zahl, unter die sich auch länger schon bekannte wie diejenigen von Holofernes und Johannes dem Täufer mischten. Allerdings unterzog man sich solch kßnstlerischem Exerzitium zum Teil auch zu wissenschaftlichen Zwecken. Von den KÜpfen der Hingerichteten waren im Jahrhundert des aufstrebenden wissenschaftlichen Positivismus (und des bßrokratisch rationalisierten Strafrechtssystems) nicht nur Abgßsse zu nehmen oder Moulagen anzufertigen, sondern eben auch Bilder zu malen.

Kaum hatte das Säkulum der Aufklärung im gemarterten Verbrecher den Menschen entdeckt, machte sich das Jahrhundert der neuen, empirischen Wissenschaften daran, im Menschen den – geborenen – Kriminellen zu identifizieren. Dafßr legte man sich gewissermassen lebensechte Sortimente vermeintlicher Verbrechertypen an.

INTERNATIONALE AUSGABE

Die Haftung des Staates im Fall UBS Seite 9

Eine relative Position

Schwieriger Weg zurßck Die Ursachen fßr das relativ bessere Abschneiden der Schweiz sieht die OECD zum Teil in der Aussenhandelsstruktur. Viele schweizerische Exporte seien wenig konjunkturanfällig. Dazu komme, dass der Immobilienmarkt bemerkenswert stabil sei. Lobend erwähnt die OECD ferner sowohl die rasche und wirksame Stßtzung der UBS durch Regierung und Nationalbank als auch die trotzdem nur geringe Exponiertheit des Üffentlichen Sektors gegenßber potenziellen Verlusten aus dieser Rettungsaktion. Schliesslich fßgen sich noch die erfolgreichen Lockerungsbemßhungen der Nationalbank (Zinssenkungen, direkte Käufe von Frankenobligationen, Bekämpfung des Franken-Anstiegs) und die dank frßherer Disziplin relativ gute Lage der Üffentlichen Finanzen in das insgesamt fast rosige Bild. Doch auf mittlere Frist

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sieht es eben nicht so rosig aus. Die OECD rechnet fßr 2010 mit einer fßr die Schweiz ungewÜhnlich hohen Arbeitslosenquote von gegen 5%, sie stellt fest, dass die Sockelarbeitslosigkeit nach jeder Rezession gestiegen sei, was auch diesmal passieren dßrfte, und sie betont, dass junge Menschen ßberproportional stark von dieser Entwicklung betroffen seien. Ferner macht sie sich Sorgen um die Geldpolitik. Diese mßsse darauf ausgerichtet sein, die ßberschßssige Liquidität wieder zurßckzufßhren, sobald sich die Wirtschaft erhole, sie dßrfe das aber nicht zu frßh tun, weil sie sonst den Aufschwung gefährde. Ebenso gut hätte die OECD schreiben kÜnnen, man mßsse alles richtig machen. Konkreter sind da die Forderung nach einer klaren Kommunikation der Exit-Strategie und vor allem die Anregung, allenfalls ein starkes Kreditwachstum zu bremsen, auch wenn es keine unmittelbaren inflationären Risiken berge, um Ungleichgewichte auf den Finanzmärkten zu verhßten.

Strengere Aufsicht Starke Rßckendeckung erhalten Finanzmarktaufsicht (Finma) und Nationalbank fßr ihre Anstrengungen zur Stärkung der Kapitalbasis der beiden Grossbanken. Die Leverage-Ratio solle mindestens 4% erreichen (wobei das inländische Kreditgeschäft nicht ausgeklammert werden solle), und die Kernkapitalquote solle bis spätestens 2013 den Mindeststandard der BIZ um 100% ßbertreffen. Ebenso wichtig sind

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angebot wird postuliert, dass mindestens bei einem Mieterwechsel die Mieten frei angepasst werden sollten. Ein Dorn im Auge ist der OECD aber die BaulandPolitik der Agglomerationsgemeinden.

Diese wĂźrden zu sehr nur Wohngebiete fĂźr wohlhabende BĂźrger einzonen und Bauland fĂźr erschwinglichen Wohnraum knapp halten. Das sei allerdings anreizkonform, weil die Steuereinnahmen der Gemeinden an Einkommen und VermĂśgen der BĂźrger gekoppelt seien und sie umgekehrt fĂźr die soziale FĂźrsorge aufkommen mĂźssten.

Ein weiteres Spezialkapitel widmet die OECD dem Bildungssystem. Die Schweiz habe bei den formalen Qualifikationen ihren Vorsprung gegenßber anderen OECD-Ländern weitgehend

Kapitalmärkte unter Druck

Die Anwärter auf wirtschaftspolitische Schlßsselstellen in der kßnftigen EU-Kommission hielten sich vor dem EU-Parlament zumeist an die bisherige Brßsseler Linie. Selbst die vom Franzosen Barnier gesetzten Akzente spiegeln den Brßsseler Zeitgeist.

Relative Preisdifferenz der Schweiz zu der EU 15 2007, EU 15 = 100

Reales Bruttosozialprodukt

BĂ–RSEN UND MĂ„RKTE

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Samstag, 26. September 2009 ďż˝ Nr. 223

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im Urteil der OECD aber Liquiditätsvorschriften. Auch hier neigt sie dazu, fßr die Schweizer Grossbanken strengere Normen zu fordern, als sie international ßblich sind, weil die beiden Institute eben ein besonders grosses Risiko darstellten. Auch die grossen Versicherungen und Pensionskassen sollten – bei allen Branchenunterschieden – ähnlich stark an die Kandare genommen werden wie die Grossbanken.

Klare Arbeitsteilung Ferner werden im Länderbericht mehr Ressourcen und mehr SanktionsmÜglichkeiten fßr die Finma sowie eine klare Arbeitsteilung zwischen ihr und der Nationalbank gefordert. Letzterer solle die Rolle zukommen, Standards zu entwickeln und zu kommunizieren, die die Finma dann durchzusetzen hätte. Dass die Schweiz zwar ein hohes Pro-Kopf-Einkommen, aber eine relativ niedrige Produktivität pro Arbeitsstunde aufweist, beschäftigt die OECD seit längerem. Die Ursachen sieht sie vor allem in der Abschottung, denn es sind hauptsächlich Dienstleistungen, bei denen keine internationale Konkurrenz herrscht, oder stark ortsgebundene Gßter wie das Wohnen, bei denen Preisunterschiede ins Auge stechen – trotz der oft geringeren Steuerlast. Auch Regulierungen und die protektionistische Landwirtschaftspolitik tragen gemäss OECD zur geringen Produktivität, zu den hohen Preisen und zu entsprechenden Kosten fßr die Steuerzahler bei. Reflexe, Seite 8

aufgezehrt. Die relativ guten Pisa-Ergebnisse hätten nicht zuletzt mit dem hohen Wohlstand und dem hohen Bildungsstand der Eltern zu tun, während Schßlerinnen und Schßler aus einfachen Verhältnissen oder mit Migrationshintergrund deutlich hinter den hohen nationalen Standards zurßckblieben.

Um dem zu begegnen, schlägt die OECD vor, dass der Kindergarten in der ganzen Schweiz ab dem 4. Lebensjahr fßr obligatorisch erklärt und gratis angeboten wird, wie es im Harmos-Konkordat vorgesehen sei. Ausserdem seien Krippen fßr Kinder unter 4 Jahren mit einem Gutschein-System (Voucher) zu subventionieren. Und schliesslich solle auch die Richtungswahl in der Schule frßhestens mit 13 Jahren erfolgen.

Unter den Anwärtern hob sich der konservative Franzose Michel Barnier vielleicht am deutlichsten von seinem Vorgänger ab, dem liberalen Iren Charlie McCreevy. Barnier wird als Binnenmarktkommissar unter anderem fßr die Regulierung der Finanzmärkte zuständig sein. In Umsetzung der G-20-Beschlßsse dßrfe kein Markt, kein Akteur, kein Produkt und keine Region unreguliert bleiben, betonte der Franzose. Er will sich unter anderem fßr striktere Vorgaben fßr das Eigenkapital von Banken und fßr die Regulierung von Derivaten einsetzen. Er sprach sich ferner fßr den Ausbau des Binnenmarkts aus, betonte aber wiederholt dessen soziale Dimension. Er werde nichts tun, was zu einem sozialen Rßckschritt fßhre.

Zugleich trat Barnier aber BefĂźrchtungen entgegen, er werde gewissermassen als verlängerter BrĂźsseler Arm des franzĂśsischen Staatspräsidenten Sarkozy dem Finanzplatz London durch eine Ăœberregulierung das Wasser abgraben. Er sei sich der Bedeutung der britischen Finanzindustrie bewusst, sagte er. Doch es sei nicht in deren Interesse, weitere Krisen infolge eines Mangels an Kontrolle und Aufsicht zu erleiden. Schon Adam Smith habe gesagt, dass der Markt ohne Regeln und Ethik nicht funktioniere. Befehle werde er weder aus Paris noch aus London, noch sonst woher entgegennehmen.

Stimmungswandel Schlug Barnier einen klar anderen Ton als McCreevy an, ging er in der Substanz bestenfalls in Nuancen ßber das hinaus, was bereits die derzeitige Kommission angestossen hatte. Denn der Stimmungswandel vor allem gegenßber dem Finanzsektor hat längst eingesetzt.

Er ist primär eine Folge der Finanzkrise und nicht der – von Sarkozy triumphierend gefeierten – Ăœbernahme des Binnenmarkt-Ressorts durch einen Franzosen. Barnier fand denn auch Beifall aus unterschiedlichen politischen Lagern. Dazu beigetragen hat auch sein souveränes, streckenweise gar humorvolles Auftreten: Nach einer langen Karriere als franzĂśsischer Minister, als EU-Kommissar fĂźr Regionalpolitik (1999–2004) und zuletzt als EU-Parlamentarier ist er in BrĂźssel bekannt, und er weiss mit den Abgeordneten umzugehen.

Viele Berßhrungspunkte Ähnliches gilt fßr den spanischen Sozialisten Joaqu´Ĺn Almunia, der bisher Wirtschaftskommissar war und neu das Wettbewerbs-Ressort ßbernehmen soll.

Während und nach der Krise hatten und haben die beiden Dossiers viele Berßhrungspunkte, entsprechend sat-

telfest zeigte sich Almunia. Damit hob er sich von seiner Vorgängerin Neelie Kroes ab, die 2004 bei ihrer ersten AnhÜrung und erneut in der jßngsten Runde (sie soll Telekom-Kommissarin werden) wenig ßberzeugte und am Dienstag im kleinen Kreis der Fachsprecher der Fraktionen erneut antreten soll.

In der Substanz blieb Almunia aber ähnlich vage wie andere; Hinweise auf einen Kurswechsel in der Wettbewerbspolitik gab er nicht. Zu den zuweilen als exzessiv kritisierten Kartellbussen sagte er, diese mßssten angemessen bleiben, um abschreckend zu wirken. Dem Parlament, das in der Wettbewerbspolitik kaum Kompetenzen hat, versprach er auf eine einschlägige Frage mit einer Prise Ironie, er werde versuchen, mit ihm noch besser zusammenzuarbeiten als der beste meiner Vorgänger.

Bekannte Positionen Etwas weniger gut angekommen ist der liberale Finne Ollie Rehn, der bisherige Erweiterungs- und designierte Wirtschafts- und Währungskommissar. Dabei vertrat auch er weitgehend bekannte Kommissions-Positionen, allerdings in der ihm eigenen ruhig-sprÜden Art. Mit Blick auf die Rßckfßhrung der in der Krise aufgetßrmten Defizite und Schulden betonte er die Bedeutung des Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakts, der rigoroser anzuwenden sei. Rehn gestand ein, dass die desolate Finanzlage in Griechenland den Pakt auf die Probe stelle. Weiter befßrwortete er einen Ausbau der wirtschaftspolitischen Koordination im Euro-Raum.

Recht gut aufgenommen wurden die Auftritte des Belgiers Karel De Gucht (designierter Handelskommissar), des Deutschen Gßnter Oettinger (Energie) und der Dänin Connie Hedegaard (Klima). Die letzten beiden, aber auch weitere Kommissare legten grosses Gewicht auf Energie- und Klimaziele, von der Steigerung der Energieeffizienz bis zur Reduktion des CO -Ausstosses.

Oettinger wurde zwar auf seine angeblich grosse Nähe zur deutschen Energiewirtschaft angesprochen, doch erntete er am Ende gar Lob von grßner Seite. Er sprach viel von Subsidiarität, will aber zugleich die Rolle der EU in der Energiepolitik stärken. Der designierte Agrarkommissar schliesslich, der Rumäne Dacian Ciolos, ist Agrarexperte aus einem Land mit einem gewichtigen Agrarsektor, was im Vorfeld Zweifel an seiner Reformfreudigkeit geweckt hatte. Nun sprach er sich fßr weitere Reformen der Agrarpolitik aus. Zugleich machte er aber deutlich, dass Reform fßr ihn nicht eine Kßrzung, sondern eine Anpassung der Subventionen bedeute.

Heterogenes Gremium Noch ist nicht klar, ob das Parlament die eine oder andere personelle Umschichtung zu erzwingen versuchen wird. So oder so wird der Wechsel der Kommission aber kaum zu einer wirtschaftspolitischen Kehrtwende fĂźhren.

Dies darf nicht erstaunen: Ein Gremium, das selbst sehr heterogen zusammengesetzt ist und fßr seine Vorschläge Mitgliedstaaten und Parlament hinter sich bringen muss, hat eine mittlere Linie zu verfolgen. Entsprechend gering ist die Neigung der Anwärter, sich vor der Bestätigung zu exponieren. Zudem wurden sie von Barroso im Vorfeld auf dessen Linie eingefuchst. Vor diesem Hintergrund unterschieden sich die kßnftigen Kommissare vor dem Parlament eher durch die Form ihrer Auftritte als durch konkrete politische Pläne: Auch einen Marathon der Floskeln absolvieren manche besser, fachkundiger oder unterhaltsamer als andere. Reflexe, Seite 8

BRANCHEN-INDIZES

DIE WICHTIGSTEN EREIGNISSE DER WOCHE

GEWINNER/VERLIERER DER WOCHE

SMI: –1,40%

SMI

ZĂźrich, die SNB verteidigt am Freitag ihre Interventionen am Devisenmarkt. Die weitere Aufwertung des Frankens zum Euro sei erfolgreich verhindert worden.

New York, die US-Notenbank liess am Mittwoch die Leitzinsen unverändert bei 0% bis 0,25%. Dies soll auf absehbare Zeit so bleiben.

Wirtschaftspolitische Kehrtwende kaum zu erwarten

Die Schweiz im Bericht der OECD

Wohnungsmarkt und Bildung als reformatorische Ăœbungsfelder G. S. ďż˝ Als ein Beispiel fĂźr die geringe Leistungsfähigkeit der vom Wettbewerb abgeschirmten Sektoren, die dann zu hohen Preisen fĂźhrt, nennt die OECD den Immobilien- und hier besonders den Mietwohnungsmarkt. Die Mieten liegen in der Schweiz offenbar um rund 60% hĂśher als im EU-Durchschnitt: In Deutschland beträgt die Differenz nur 15%, in Ă–sterreich liegen die Mieten sogar unter dem EU-Durchschnitt.

Die Ursachen dafĂźr sieht die OECD in den um etwa 25% hĂśheren Baukosten als in der EU, aber auch im knappen Angebot. Zur Senkung der Baukosten werden die Revision der Baunormen und eine Harmonisierung der kantonalen und kommunalen Bauvorschriften vorgeschlagen. Mit Blick auf das Wohn-

1.034

Kapitalschutzprodukte mit Coupon

Crime & chˆatiment. Paris, Mus´ee d’Orsay; bis 27. Juni. Der 415 Seiten starke Katalog (Gallimard) kostet in der Ausstellung 49 Euro.

KĂźnftige EU-Kommissare betonen soziale und grĂźne Linie

Mahnende Worte der OECD trotz guten Noten fßr die Krisenbekämpfung

Erstens ist die gute Situation der Schweiz natßrlich nur relativ: Auch sie hat 2009 einen realen Rßckgang des Bruttoinlandprodukts von immerhin fast 2% erlebt. Zweitens dßrften die Folgen der Krise fßr die Schweiz auf mittlere Frist gleichwohl markant sein: Die OECD erwartet einen Anstieg der Arbeitslosigkeit wie noch nie und das Verharren der Arbeitslosenquote auf einem hÜheren Niveau als bisher, eine weniger tragende Rolle des Finanzsektors und lang andauernde Belastungen des Staatshaushaltes. Drittens stellt der Ausweg aus der Krisenbekämpfung die Geld- und Fiskalpolitik vor schwierige Herausforderungen. Und viertens schliesslich hinkt die Schweiz in der Stundenproduktivität deutlich hinter vielen OECD-Staaten her, ohne Aussichten auf rasche Besserung.

Kan. $ (CME)

Dollar in Franken

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Krise lässt die Schweiz nicht los

Gerhard Schwarz

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Die OECD propagiert Einheit statt Vielfalt Seite 8

Die Schweiz hat die Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise bisher besser ßberstanden als die meisten OECD-Staaten, trotz dem ßberdurchschnittlich grossen Gewicht des hiesigen Finanzplatzes: So lautet die gute Nachricht in dem am Freitag verÜffentlichten Länderbericht der Organisation fßr wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (OECD) fßr die Schweiz. Aber wie in den entsprechend aufgebauten Witzen folgt darauf sogleich eine schlechte Nachricht. In diesem Fall sind es sogar mehrere schlechte Nachrichten.

Dollar-Index (CME)

VOLATILITĂ„TEN SMI-WERTE Exchangeable-ZertiďŹ kate

Akte der Phantasie und andere Auf ihrem Gang durch das Labyrinth ist sich die Neugier nun ihrer selbst nicht mehr ganz sicher.

FrĂśnt nicht auch sie einem Voyeurismus, der der Sensationslust des Publikums verwandt sein kĂśnnte, das sich an Martern und Exekutionen weidete?

Jedenfalls wohl wird sie zur Komplizin kßnstlerischer Phantasien, die – das sind weitere Themen und Motive – die Frau als femme fatale aufs Podest heben, das stumme Entsetzen einer Vergewaltigung sichtbar machen, den in den Alltag einbrechenden Wahn oder auch eine archaische Mordlust aufblitzen lassen. Der selbstredend nicht fehlende Surrealismus, der in Bretons bekanntem Ausspruch das wahllose Schiessen in die Menge als surrealistischen Akt schlechthin feiert, erscheint am Ende des Parcours wie eine naheliegende Konsequenz. Doch auch Bretons Phantasie einer Aufhebung der Grenze zwischen kßnstlerischer Phantasie und krimineller Energie bleibt eine Phantasie.

Realität sind die Verbrechen; und Realität ist die Todesstrafe, die – woran Andy Warhols Big Electric Chair unßbersehbar erinnert – auch in der zivilisierten Welt sich noch behauptet.

WIRTSCHAFT

Montag, 18. Januar 2010 ďż˝ Nr. 13

Die Schweiz hat im Urteil der OECD die Krise besser ßberstanden als andere Staaten. Sie rät aber vor allem in der Finanzmarktaufsicht zu weitgehenden Reformen und stßtzt dabei die Nationalbank und die Finma.

Bevor der Besucher zu Einzelstßcken und auch einer ganzen Galerie solcher KÜpfe gelangt, bevor er sieht, wie Kunst und Wissenschaft geradezu verfolgt worden zu sein scheinen von den Entleibten, wird er mit der mechanischen Vorrichtung konfrontiert, die Kopf und Rumpf voneinander trennte. Am Ende des Eingangsraums mit den Szenen aus mythologischer Frßhe, von weitem nur zu erahnen, steht eine Guillotine, vom franzÜsischen Volksmund la veuve genannt: die Witwe. Unter schwarzer Gaze verborgen und doch sichtbar, bildet das massive Exemplar – Baujahr 1872, in Betrieb bis 1977 – den Attraktionspunkt, zu dem es die Neugierde, und sei sie noch so scheu, unweigerlich hinzieht. Doch die Neugierde fßhlt sich irritiert bei der Befriedigung ihrer Schaulust. Von der Seite starrt sie jemand an: Luzifer, wie ihn Franz von Stuck 1890 aus unergrßndlichem Dunkel heraus gestaltet hat.

BrĂźtend sitzt der gefallene Engel da, mit stechendem Starrblick und sinnierend. Bedenkt er sein Schicksal, oder sinnt er mit kalter Wut auf BĂśses?

S&P 500: –2,21%

SPI

Tokio, der Nikkei-Index schliesst am Freitag 2,6% im Minus. Die KapitalerhĂśhung von Nomura in HĂśhe von umgerechnet 5,8 Mrd. Fr. belastete den Markt erheblich..

SPI

DOW JONES: –1,57%

NIKKEI 225: –1,01% HANG SENG: –2,77%

DJ EURO STOXX

DAX

Pittsburgh, am Donnerstag trafen sich die Staatschefs der G-20-Länder zu einem zweitägigen Gipfel. Im Zentrum stand die Regulierung der Finanzmärkte.

Hongkong/Schanghai, die Anleger nahmen am Montag begeistert den zweitgrĂśssten BĂśrsengang des Jahres auf. Am ersten Handelstag stiegen die Aktien des Anlagenbauers MCC um 35%.

ATX

S&P GLOBAL 1200

AKTIEN FTSE 100

MIT DER HĂ–CHSTEN DIV.-RENDITE

S&P 500 DJ Euro Stoxx

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MSCI-KENNZAHLEN

DJ Euro Stoxx 50

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MIT DEM TIEFSTEN KBV

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Europa/Nahost/Afrika

SPI Dow Jones Industrial

S&P 500 DJ Euro Stoxx

S&P 500

MIT DEM HĂ–CHSTEN MARKTKAPITAL SPI

Amerika

Nasdaq 100

MIT DEM TIEFSTEN KGV

S&P 500

Asien/PaziďŹ k DJ Euro Stoxx

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Nikkei 225

DJ Euro Stoxx

S&P 500

MIT DEM TIEFSTEN KCV

ROHWAREN

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QUARTALSGEWINNE DER SMI-UNTERNEHMEN

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Has the golden age of magazine publishing ended?

I don’t think so. We’re just entering the world of digital social media. Nothing to worry about. We just have to challenge it and get in tune with this. A good magazine will always find its readers. It’s all about quality. But I really don’t mind if some of these mediocre papers drop out.

Has the golden age of magazine publishing ended?

The golden age of magazines per se won’t be over as long as there are people like you and me. True believers. Proof in case are the many new and passionately created independent magazines out there. The commercial magazines really need to get their act together.

What is your vision of the future of print?

Running copy no smaller than 11pt.

What do you think when you look at the long shelves of What do you think when you look at the long shelves of comcommercial magazines in the stores? mercial magazines in the stores?

I turn away.

I am truly bored. It drives me crazy, seeing the amount of money, effort and resources being wasted on the same crap.

I’ve got nothing against commercial priorities, but it simply can’t be that there is no one at the big publishers that still entertains a vision.

Are you interested in the editorial possibilities of the iPad? Of course. We were invited by Apple to create one for Brand Eins directly with the first wave of magazine apps. It’s a great new experience. But I am not a big fan of these super ambitious, motion graphic designs. I think there is huge confusion out there. It’s not about the latest tricks. A good magazine should really stick to its core values and mirror those in their app. Nothing more and nothing less.

Are you interested in the editorial possibilities of the iPad? Definitely. Our modern times are defined by technology and it would be unwise to not open up to it, despite my love of print. The new gadgets and media offer us interesting opportunities to reassign emphasis. Imagine how subtly one could support a text’s tonality by adding the right sound, by creating tension or an aura.

You’ve seen the internet develop around you. How has it affected your relationship with print?

Print is becoming the fetish of the digital age. And successful blogs advertise in relevant magazines. So in my opinion it seems like a good relationship. And, hey, we are just getting there! I want to see my kids 10 years from now, how they will deal with this.

You are part of a generation that grew up alongside the internet –why were you drawn to print when others ignored it?

The internet is a fascinating force that changed my life just like the cell phone did, and now there’s the iPhone and iPad. I use these media almost every minute. Digital media are fast and have to be used in that fashion.

I have a different relation with print. It was my medium of learning as a child. That’s what I love, I can feel it, and I can play it like a musical instrument. As a designer I want to create objects of desire for today.

Does your editorial experience influence other areas of your design work? If so, how?

I have always loved the cross-fades of different creative disciplines. I love minimal - but it doesn’t work, life is complex.

Don’t fight it, embrace it.

Does your editorial experience influence other areas of your design work? If so, how?

Absolutely. I started very early on to transfer my experiences to other media. I used the idea of a constant evolution of identity, as exercised by me at many magazines, in corporate projects.

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The last tango Photographer: Edwin Tse

Stylist: Edda Gudmundsdottir @ Kate Ryan Inc. Make-up: Stephanie Peterson Hair: Osmane da Cunha

Model: Ciara Christensen @ Major Model Management

VPL Scarf

AMERICAN APPAREL Panties

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Vintage YSL Glasses

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Above:

PLEASURE PRINCIPLE Motorcycle dress worn as jacket

KIKI DE MONTPARNASSE Bra, panties, garter belt and stockings

Right page:

KIKI DE MONTPARNASSE Panties

LD TUTTLE For VPL Boots Vintage YSL Glasses

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SALVOR Dress

ALONZO Boots

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KIKI DE MONTPARNASSE Panties MICHAEL KORS Shoes

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PLEASURE PRINCIPLE Leather harness top

YIGAL AZROUEL Pants Vintage YSL Glasses

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Painting As a Means to Grasp Reality Eva Wittocx talks to Tina Gillen

Compared to her practice ten years ago, the recent work of Tina Gillen conveys the impression that she has somewhat gone back to ‘painting’ in that she is increasingly letting the paint ‘speak for itself’.

Her various series nevertheless share a feeling of solidarity, a certain atmosphere which is quite hard to put into words.

During our talk the artist dwells on her issues of interest, detailing her working methods and explaining her role as a creator and a painter of images.

The following interview is a revised and extended version of an interview for the publication ‘Tina Gillen. A Necessary Journey’ (Hatje Cantz, 2009).

Portrait by Christian Aschman.

It seems to me that the most special or magical moment for any artist is when he or she decides to capture an image – whether it originates from the imagination or reality, and whether it is well reflected or expressive. Could you explain how you go about taking this decision in terms of what you want to depict. What type of images of the world do you want to produce?

When I set out to paint I want my work to reproduce situations that I have experienced myself. These are mostly situations that intrigue or puzzle me. These personal experiences are at the origin of what you could call a search for a universal language that transcends them. My interest in capturing a given subject or theme on canvas can

be triggered in several ways. Sometimes I’m affected by images on the news, but it may just as well be visual stimuli that I pick up from my surroundings, something that arouses my curiosity, or even feelings linked to certain events in my life.

Generally speaking, I’m very receptive to impressions or observations. Most of the situations that interest me are linked to the broader issue of the human being and his environment: the fight for living space, the need to mark out a territory by means of constructions or interventions – including the tensions between nature and urbanism arising from this struggle. Architecture, constructions, and large cities fascinate me as places where the magnitude and impact of human intervention manifest themselves in an extreme form.

But I’m not only attracted by grand or exotic subjects; my interest can just as well apply to a climbing frame, a hut, fireworks, or a mountain view. Many of the subjects that I depict bear a metaphorical meaning to me. The tent, for instance, is an interesting shape to the extent that, among others, it symbolically stands for the rudimentary constructions with which man tries to mark his private space. Similarly, I can be fascinated by subtle shifts in our daily lives, things that we hardly even notice any longer. The same is true for seemingly minor events, which mirror society as a whole. Take a trivial football match, for instance, a game that has a distinct influence on many people’s lives. At the same time it stands for the fight between nations. It’s because this kind of experience or situation intrigues and simultaneously annoys me that it inspires me. It’s like an unfinished puzzle that I want to complete.

How do you proceed in devising specific compositions or a series of paintings?

Once my curiosity has been aroused by a given topic, I want to gather as much information and as many interesting images as I possibly can. I travel as much as possible to gather impressions and take photographs, since the personal view remains

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essentially irreplaceable. I collect additional images from the Internet or from archives and libraries. To avoid stereotypes, I narrow down my research by defining the broad outlines beforehand. After a while I find myself with a number of images, which, because of their composition or structure, are sufficiently intriguing for me to start translating them into the vernacular of painting.

So the general structure of the composition originates from this attraction to a certain image.

So you start with a number of images, which you have chosen or assembled beforehand. But do you leave out certain elements; do you abstract or fragment the image in the course of the painting process?

It’s because this kind of experience or situation intrigues and simultaneously annoys me that it inspires me. It’s like an unfinished puzzle that I want to complete.

Zimmer frei, 2008 170 x 130 cm Acrylic on canvas Right page: Century Plant, 2010 125 x 90 cm Acrylic on canvas

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I always try to strike a balance between control and freedom. When I was studying at the academy in the middle of the 1990s, I painted in a very expressive and colourful style – I was painting very intuitively, if you will. At some point I realised that I had very little control over my compositions and was therefore unable to express what was really important to me. This is when I decided to engage more intensely with the outside world, but also to investigate my inner feelings, and to reflect this in my work. Although I more or less settle on a composition before I get started, the main ‘solutions’ manifest themselves in the course of the actual painting process. It is while I paint that I take the truly important decisions. When painting I aim for a combination between control and risk, between the initial footage, which I let go of at a certain point, and the spontaneous aspect of painting itself. Although the footage is clearly an excuse to get started, it progressively fades into the background as I paint.

Having said that, at the very end of the process I eventually want to return to the original image which caught my attention, as it is of crucial importance that I be able to identify with the starting idea. I’m not interested in producing a mere reflection of my feelings, my imagination or fantasy world. In most cases the figurative motif, which I want to be sharp and clearly focused, occupies the central spot in the composition. The edges or the background, in turn, leave room for more expressive and abstract elements, for which I can adopt a looser approach. I want these two aspects – clarity and abstraction – to stand side by side. They should actually complement one another. The informal or unidentifiable parts of the painting should clarify or strengthen the main motive. All elements in the painting, even the most expressive or abstract motifs, must spring forth from an explicit necessity. Nothing should be gratuitous.

By intentionally leaving out certain elements the information in the image remains incomplete, and its readability is disrupted, which is precisely what I aim for. By determining the script beforehand, I retain control over what enters the field of vision. It may seem contradictory, but I need the starting image to be able to relinquish control.

Those moments, in which I forget about the image, are not only welcome but necessary. In that respect I do not produce representations, but rather detach myself from them, selecting things from my visual field and thus becoming a viewer myself. The fact that I often start from personal photographs or ‘cut-outs’ of the world enables me to reach beyond the reproduction of explicit images and to focus on the pure pleasure of painting and observing instead.

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1800 M, 2008 150 x 210 cm Acrylic on canvas

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My paintings do not capture the existing world; they are rather reconstructed worlds, stage settings which are usually uninhabited or deserted.

Does your working method change depending on whether you start from you own photographs or from found footage?

I used to start from my own photographs, and it wasn’t until 1999 that I decided to use other footage as a source of inspiration. This decision originated from the frustration that certain themes which I wanted to explore in depth were not immediately available to me. I also started to source images from books, the Internet, postcards, and so on. The ambiguous status of postcards is characteristic of my work. Postcards use only very specific images. They will not, for instance, show ‘a mountain hut’ but ‘the mountain hut’ in general, meaning an archetype that stands for all mountain huts in the world. When I started to use images from postcards or the Internet, I became more attentive to the fact that the originality or authenticity of the image was partly lost, which enhanced the effect of distantiation.

The material context of the image, such as the layout of a page in a book or the shape of a postcard, also attracts my attention. For ‘Waterchute I’ (1999), for instance, my starting point was an existing postcard. In trying to balance the composition, I experiment with a lot of things. I discard certain elements to almost paradoxically achieve a level of readability. I try to push the boundaries of the process of abstraction, keeping only the strictest minimum. In doing so, I often combine architectural and landscape elements.

also underline their material properties by means of paint drips, visible brush strokes...

In my early work the investigation of the subject matter and the status of the image prevailed. I was focusing on analysing and constructing images. In other words, I created images rather than paintings, whereas today I’m more concerned with showing that I’m a painter. The traces that I leave on the canvas could be said to be the material manifestation of this approach.

I’m aware that working hands-on while trying to control the image is somehow a dilemma. You cut through the literal aspect of the image to reveal its essence. The uniqueness or specificity of the subject gradually gives way to its more universal or metaphorical aspect. In my paintings you’ll see details, often covered with tape, as well as dripping paint and traces of the working process. My images only function when both coexist.

You have mentioned the process of controlling, painting, and taking distance. How do you decide when a work is finished?

A work is finished when I don’t know what I could possibly add to it, whether in pictorial or content-related terms. Towards the end of the process, I usually remove certain elements rather than adding something. For me a painting is successful when it transcends the image. The personal experience of painting, combined with the intention that I have projected into it, produces a kind of euphoria or satisfaction in view of the final result. That’s when I realise that I should leave it as it is. The work doesn’t need to be perfect, but it must retain an element of risk, doubt, and mystery that allows me to initiate a reflection on painting. In that respect every painting has to become autonomous and lead its own life, independently of its photographic starting point.

The work doesn’t need to be perfect, but it must retain an element of risk, doubt, and mystery that allows me to initiate a reflection on painting. In that respect every painting has to become autonomous and lead its own life, independently of its photographic starting point.

As a rule you tend to work in the privacy and concentrated atmosphere of the studio, but lately you have worked on several wall paintings in different locations. Does your working method differ when you take on those projects?

Until I received my first commission to paint a work in a specific architectural context, my working method had remained unchanged. I would travel to a given place, take photographs and bring back those images to my studio, where I would translate them into paintings. With the wall paintings I had to reverse the process: I travelled to a certain location to produce a painting on the premises and in reaction to the context. I thus learned to work in a less restricted way and to be more attentive to space and the spectator’s physical experience of space.

While your paintings contain recognisable forms and fragments which refer to reality, you

Lodge II, 2008 21 x 29,6 cm, Water mixable oil colour o.p.

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In your most recent works you more and more seem to start from found images, all connected to a certain topic you are researching. In Photoshop you combine them, you create several layers, switch colours, add or erase. Can you explain this proces?

A good example is the work ‘The Falls’, a wallpainting I made in the beginning of this year for the Museum M in Leuven. Recently, I use found images as often as my own images. Second-hand images are interesting to me as they show us how ‘our collective memory’ is selecting visual information. When I use postcards I am playing with those fixed clichés, as I explained earlier, for example: the classical landscape, the romantic sunset, etc. These found images are already reproductions of reality, their elements or subjects have a certain distance from their original

Second-hand images are interesting to me as they show us how ‘our collective memory’ is selecting visual information.

subject. When I have to make visual choices, I tend to make an easier selection of certain parts of the image. The moment I combine parts of an existing or ‘dated’ picture (of a postcard for example) with some of my own photographes, I have the impression that the image has a new opportunity to come alive. The new perspective coming from my feelings or intentions, in combination with the formal aspects of an older picture, is making the image again up to date.

The starting point for ‘The Falls’ were several old postcards of the famous Niagara Falls and a motel at the edge of the waterfall; as well as the iconic Frank Lloyd Wright ‘Falling Water’ house.

It was my aim to create one image of all the pictures I assembled. I made a collage by using specific computer programmes. To create this composition I combined different elements in the pictures that were of interest to me. The computer enables me to change colours, highlight elements, masking other elements, etc. For this process to happen all the images had to be taken apart and come together again.

It is challenging but at the very end it is all about making a good painting that is powerful and of interest to the viewer.

In 2007 you had a one-year residency in New York. As your work often relates to your surroundings, to the places you are living, your travels… I imagine this stay influenced you work strongly?

Probably the most interesting aspect of my stay in New York is the fact that I had a more distant and rather detached view on our European continent, including its cultural background, which is so different than in the United States. New York as a city was amazing and overwhelming; it was vibrant and fast. At the same time it was difficult to translate my impressions into my work; as new visual impressions are being replaced by new ones constantly. The rhythm of stimuli you get there is so high, one really has to struggle to stay attentive.

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In don’t immediately see the ‘big city’ appearing in your compositions. In recent paintings I rather notice a focus on huge open spaces and landscapes.

Although I very much liked New York, I have to admit that I had an even greater pleasure making several trips to other states such as Texas, Pennsylvania or New Jersey. The American landscape as a subject was one of the bigger topics I wanted to focus on.

I am still dealing with understanding certain aspects of the American culture that are hard to grasp for us Europeans. The wideness of the open space for example, or – almost in contradiction to

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Canoes, 2008 115 x 155 cm Acrylic on canvas

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Deer Blinds, 2008 245 x 310 cm Acrylic on canvas

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Above: Wall painting, The Falls, 2010, 350 x 750 cm, Acrylic on wall Right page: Fragment, The Falls, 2010, crop from wall painting, acrylic on wall

My work is about following my path of life.

I see it changing like waves come and go.

The subjects I depict are very close to what I see around me. this - the experience of true isolation. Both experiences were very overwhelming to me, and do have an influence on my work. Also the feeling of being ‘lost in translation’ was very familiar to me.

Some of the visual impressions I experienced were so radical, that they can’t be replaced by images or postcards. Certain colour combinations or contrasts alternate daily subjects into something immense and wonderful. I want to try including some of these magical moments into my work.

This theme we come across a lot in your work, ‘architecture – landscape’, doesn’t this specific focus or angle also lead to a restrictive reading of your work? For sure every work also deals with its

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own content. How do you see your ‘interest’ throughout your works changing?

My work is about following my path of life. I see it changing like waves come and go. The subjects I depict are very close to what I see around me. I guess through my work one literally notices when my fascination for a certain subject is shifting. It shows itself through a new series of paintings. Certain subjects, even very simple or general ones, such as architecture or landscape, can be evolving since we can look at them in so many different ways and from so many different angles.

I see no restriction at all. On the contrary I rather feel that certain questions are becoming more important, precise and relevant to me the longer I reflect on them through my work.

Although text and words have been present in some of your older works (such as ‘Caravaning’), they seem to take up a more complex role in your recent works. In ‘The Falls’ the text is fragmented, shifted and hardly readable. It seems to tell us something about a similar layering in the image. Can you comment on the importance of words in relation to the image?

I am interested in text and lettering since a long time. ‘Caravaning’ which I painted in 1998 was made during a residency in the south of France.

Instead of painting a whole city of tents I preferred to depict a simple sign at the entrance of a camping. Instead of painting the colony of tourists, caravans and tents, I chose a more indirect way to visualize this topic.

Words can be very direct. In ‘The Falls’ I choose to paint letters that become hardly readable. They are quite fragmented and at some parts they are literally ‘falling’ apart but they still happen to merge down and melt with the rest of the image. It is impossible for me to know in advance how the painting will be coming together, and how I am going to resolve the problem of mixing layers. I do not want the lettering to overtake the image; I want it to be in balance with the composition and the ‘idea’ of the waterfall. At this point the painting becomes really interesting to me.

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1800 M, 2008 150 x 210 cm Acrylic on canvas

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Couleurs de femmes Orly Olivier is a Los Angeles-based photographer whose work has been published in various magazines including Nylon and Giant & Good.

Orly always walks with a camera in her hand no matter where she goes. www.orlyolivier.com

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desert man Photographer: RosaundGerlinde Stylist: Lorena Morena Make-up artist & hair stylist: Bettina Colmsee Model: Filip N. @ Vivamodels — Hugo Suit Hermès Shoes

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prada Shirt, pullover & trousers

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prada shoes

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emporio armani Outfit

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emporio armani Shirt, trousers

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Louis vuitton Outfit

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Salvatore ferragamo Jacket & shirt Louis Vuitton Trousers & shoes

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prada Shirt, pullover & trousers

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Girls Roller Derby Roller derby is mostly an all-female contact sport. A roller derby bout takes place on an oval track, and teams score points by having their lead skater overlap the opposing pack – who do all they can (within the rules) to block her from passing.

In the 1960s and 70s, roller derby was a form of entertainment mainly run by theatrical and TV companies. In the early 2000s, an international grassroots revival began, run by would-be skaters themselves. Each league is independently run and owned, usually by women. Nico spoke to some of the people behind four of the USA’s leading roller derby leagues.

Interview by Andrew Losowsky. Photography credits: Arizona Derby Dames – Richard Kimbrough

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Rollergirl name: HiJackn Jill Real name: Jill Reed Howerter Age: 36 Rollergirl for Las Muertas in the South Side Roller Derby League, Texas Former technical writer for a NASA contractor, now a “stay-at-home mom” How do you feel in the build up to a bout?

The entire day is nerve-racking. I try to relax, maybe focus on what to eat and what I’m wearing, but there’s still a knot in my stomach and uncertainty running through my mind. The thing about derby is that every bout is different. Nothing is predictable and everything can change in a split second.

Once the bout begins, my focus can narrow and the nerves go away. And then the fun begins!

Have you ever felt scared during a bout?

I’ve had a few scary spills, I’ve bruised some ribs and hipbones and knees and elbows, but skating and falling doesn’t scare me. The anticipation of a bad injury does, but I try to avoid that by being aware of what is going on around me as much as possible at all times. Fear has no place – it must be replaced by confidence in your ability and in the fact that the referees are there to keep us all safe.

How did you decide to become a rollergirl?

In March 2009, about a year after seeing my first live bout, a friend’s status update on Facebook said that she was going to try out for roller derby. If she could do it, so could I. It took about two or three weeks of icing my thighs and knees after every single practice, but eventually my legs got into shape, and miraculously, as time went on, the arthritis in my knees disappeared.

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How did you come up with your rollergirl name?

I have spent my whole life introducing myself as “Jill, like Jack and Jill”. I wanted something menacing and mean, which is so not my personality. Then I came up with it: HiJackn’. A bit politically incorrect, but that’s perfect for derby.

Some of my favorite names from our league are Donkey PunchHer, Evil I. Kandy, Game Ova, Heathen HookHer, and Molotov Blocktail. [There is an online master roster of rollergirl names from different leagues at www.twoevils.org/rollergirls] What do your family and friends think about your involvement in the sport?

My friends couldn’t believe it at first - and then they came and tried it once or twice. My guy friends think it’s really cool and have watched a few bouts themselves. My husband was thrilled that I finally found a hobby/sport I could enjoy and has been 100% supportive throughout. My parents bought me expensive new skates as a present.

Overall, my friends and family may think I spend a crazy amount of time and energy on it, but then again, they’ve never seen me have a passion for anything quite like this. Roller derby really has changed my life.

How has it changed your life?

Roller derby has given me a can-do attitude.

Roller derby has given me the strength to do something I’ve wanted to do for over three years: homeschool my kids. Roller derby has shown me that I can try new things and succeed. I cannot imagine knowing a better group of women, and I am so proud to be a part of it.

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Photo LA Derby Dolls: Marc Campos

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Photo LA Derby Dolls: Marc Campos

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Rollergirl name: Amber Alert!

Real name: Stephanie Villa Age: 31 Head of Training for the Los Angeles Derby Dolls League Mastering Engineer for a music company How much training do you do?

I try to train six days a week. Three days are skating, two days are endurance – generally spin workouts, paired with strength training – and one day I try to do some cross-training such as a bar class or yoga.

Strength training is vital and has to encompass the entire body, but particular attention should be given to the knees. Skating derby is damaging to the knees and making sure they are strong is super important.

How important is it that roller derby is an allfemale sport?

We are proving women can be just as tough as men, and women should be included in contact sports. On a much larger scale, we are helping to change the way women are viewed and how women view themselves.

Rollergirl name: Dee Toxin Real name: Brandis Stockman Age: 29 Head Referee and Mediation Director, TXRD (Texas Roller Derby) Lonestar League Social worker Why did you get into refereeing?

I have never been a roller girl, I’m not really interested in becoming one. Outside of the fact that I can’t skate worth a damn, I’m just not sure I could deal with the injuries – in my “real life”, I’m a social worker in an elementary school, and it would be very difficult to explain, say, a black eye to the parents of one of my six-year-old students. Seeing a social worker walking around with a messed-up face does not give the impression of being someone who is good at helping kids deal with conflict.

Do you get nervous before a bout?

When I first started Head Reffing, I was nervous the whole day. I didn’t know the skaters at all, so all I could think of was dealing with a bunch of screaming girls and trying to sort them out in front of a thousand people. When you’re a roller derby referee and you fuck up, you’re going to hear about it – most likely in a loud, aggressive manner.

Now that I’ve been reffing for a long time, I don’t get nervous very often. I guess I’m kind of curious, thinking, How will the game go? Will it be close? Will I get yelled at a lot? And usually, right before the first whistle, I think to myself, “Please don’t let me fuck up tonight.”

How bad are the fouls?

We try to watch for dirty or sneaky stuff that happens during fights, which can be difficult. Our league allows fighting, but we also have rules regarding sportswomanship and unnecessary roughness. A big fight after a jam can be exciting to watch and really adds to our game, but someone injuring another skater during a fight is not cool. Sometimes, we have evidence that a fight

was taken too far: bite marks, tears. A lot of the time, though, it’s a really grey area.

Do the rollergirls respect the referees?

Yes. It’s taken a while to build relationships, but now I think most of the girls realize that we are not there to be assholes. It’s definitely a strange relationship given that the refs are all male except for me, and the girls are passionate about empowering women through the sport. But when the refs and skaters get to know each other as people outside of the game, I think the respect between both parties builds quickly.

What do your family think about your hobby?

My husband attends every game. He is very supportive. He loves the fact that I am so passionate about something outside of my job. He even drives me to roller derby parties and picks my drunk ass up when I call him at 3 am. He’s the best.

Why do you enjoy Roller Derby?

It’s an exciting sport. I love how it’s all-female – girls don’t really get the opportunity to be in the spotlight as far as popular sports go, which sucks. It’s cool to see how girls change in positive ways after being involved, and I’ve changed too. I have made some amazing friends, I’m more confident, and I feel more fulfilled in life. It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

Do you get paid to referee?

Only with love, and sometimes beer.

If you could introduce a new rule, what would it be?

Refs should get free shots from the bar after every bout.

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Photo LA Derby Dolls: Marc Campos

Photo LA Derby Dolls: Charlie Chu

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Photo LA Derby Dolls: Marc Campos

Photo LA Derby Dolls: Marc Campos

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Rollergirl name: Vintage Vixen Real name: Julie Cozzo Age: 44 Media, Marketing and Public Relations Manager, Arizona Derby Dames League and former rollergirl (currently not competing due to injury) What makes roller derby successful?

We’ve kept it affordable and we offer a lot of sports entertainment for that money. A ticket is $12, and kids 12 and under are free, so people don’t have to find babysitters.

How important is it that this is an all-female sport?

This league is a business that was started by women for women. It’s a sisterhood, a way to empower women. We have some men in roles as track builders, referees and announcers, and we love and appreciate them, but they respect the women in this league and follow our lead.

Men who think they are going to get themselves into a leadership position aren’t appreciated or respected by the skaters, and don’t last very long within the organization because they don’t “get” the culture of what we’ve built. It’s a female-run operation. The women are the captains, co-captains and coaches of the teams.

Women handle everything from the training to the art direction, from marketing to accounting to taxes and legal to the business strategy of the league.

How serious are the on-track rivalries?

Things can get pretty heated during the games and tempers definitely take over. Girls will yell at each other. Occasionally physical fights may even occur, though that’s against game rules and girls can be put in the penalty box or even ejected for that behaviour.

But off the track, we are one big family that loves and respects each other. We have a saying, “Leave it on the track”, and for the most part that happens. But the competition and rivalries between teams are very real. Each team wants

that championship at the end of the year, so games and competition are very serious.

How did you get injured?

My worst injury was actually at a practice in 2007. I caught my heel on the ledge leading to the rink, broke my fibula and needed surgery and a plate with six screws. My ankle still hurts and swells when I’m on it a lot. In December 2008, I broke a wrist at a public open-skate session. That injury took even longer to heal because it was a scaphoid fracture broken clean through, and that bone has only a single blood supply.

So I was out for the 2009 season as well, which was hard for me because that season was a big one for us. But we’ve grown so much, and since I handle a lot of the business side of the league (bout production, media and marketing, business strategy), I had my hands full with roller derby in other ways.

What do your family and friends think about your involvement in the sport?

My parents thought I was crazy and worried about injuries. Once I was injured, they were supportive but relieved that I wasn’t going back to compete. The rest of my family and friends think it’s amazingly cool and fun and exciting and want to hear all about it.

When do you think you’ll be skating again?

I’ll skate again when I can afford to get hurt again. And who knows if that day will ever come.

Physical therapy is expensive, as is time away from “real life” when you get an injury, so I’ll have to be mentally and financially prepared for another injury before I put my skates back on. But I would love to skate one more season, so who knows?

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Rollergirl name: La Muerta Real name: April Ritzenthaler Age: 39 Internal Operations Director and Co-Founder, TXRD (Texas Roller Derby) Lonestar League; Manager of Las Putas team Massage Therapist How different is April from La Muerta?

When this first started, nearly 10 years ago, I really needed my alter-ego. I was much more emotionally withdrawn and couldn’t really express myself. Now that I’ve transformed so much through this journey, La Muerta and myself are more alike. I can be powerful and strong, joyful and confident – though I do have to say that La Muerta does a lot more yelling than I’d ever do in real life.

How do you prepare for a bout?

The most important thing I can do is become La Muerta and then connect with the team. The transformation begins at home with an outfit, hair and makeup, and continues as we hang in the locker room before it starts. We usually laugh, refocus, check each other’s outfits and try to stay relaxed. We finish this off with skating around and dancing to the first live band playing, and then chanting “Putas” in a circle until we are screaming.

As soon as we are announced, I go directly into ‘show mode’ and all the nervousness goes away. We usually have some sort of production number we do for our entrance, whether it’s our gay-male cheerleading squad doing a dance, or me being Santa Muerte, the Goddess of Death. We want to impress our fans and rile up the other team.

What do the girls in Las Putas all have in common?

We LOVE to have fun. It doesn’t matter if we are getting our asses handed to us, we are still having a good time.

The real lives of our team go all over the place.

We did have a few seasons where the majority of the team were highly educated – something like six Masters degrees and a Ph.D., in subjects like Sociology, MBA, Engineering, Social Work, Accounting, Film and Education. There are also high-tech workers, waitresses, state workers, dog groomers, nannies and singers.

I am a massage therapist, and I also recently became a Wedding Celebrant. I have married a few rollergirls and their men in the past year.

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How important is it that roller derby is an allfemale sport?

You know at first, to me, being all-female was a way for us to be as bad-ass as the boys. So when we took over the league, after it had been nearly ruined and abandoned by a man who set it up and then spent all the sponsorship money before skipping town, we realized we only wanted girls to be part of it. Our attitude was that if there were going to be men around they were going to be in a subservient role, both in our presentation to the public, and to our fierce reputation.

But throughout the formation of the league we relied heavily on men to be our production, announcers, coaches, EMT’s, part of the business, and, of course, supporters and friends. So, our early attitude belied reality – we needed our male counterparts and, in fact, loved them.

I’ve always felt like the greatest feminist act you can do is to open your heart, and I’m glad we didn’t follow our early ego-centeric ideas! Our sport may be all-female, but it wouldn’t be here without the help of men, in the background and in the stands.

As of right now, we don’t have a men’s league, but there are quite a few men’s and co-ed leagues popping up all over the country. I personally hope that anyone, male or female, who wants to play this exhilarating sport should have the opportunity.

However, I think that men will have a harder time building leagues that are as financially successful in ticket sales. There is an attraction factor with the female skaters that puts the fans in the seats, and we acknowledge it without hesitation.

I’ve long understood the fact that this isn’t really about roller derby at all. It’s a way for a disparate bunch of people, with a love for something that elevates their spirits and allows them to express deep feelings in a safe environment, to have a transformational experience.

Not everyone becomes who they’ll ultimately “be” within the structure of the league, but I can tell you that they all leave with more than they arrived with; a little closer in the journey towards reclaiming their full, boundless spirit.

Photo LA

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Photo LA Derby Dolls: Charlie Chu

Photo LA Derby Dolls: Jason Ziemlak

Photo LA Derby Dolls: Charlie Chu

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Photographer: waYne Kahn

Photographers assistant: JaKe hicKs Stylist: PollY errinGton Models: reaDinG sYncroniseD swiMMinG teaM Harriet, Naomi, Rebecca, Kristina, Hannah, Beth

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Bebaroque Bodies

Mouille Swimsuit centre

Bebaroque Tights centre & right Jonathan Aston Tights left

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Mouille Swimsuit centre

Bebaroque Tights centre & right Jonathan Aston Tights left

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Nathasha Lawes Antlers Bebaroque Body

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Bebaroque Tights centre & right Jonathan Aston Tights left

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Daniel Hechter Swimsuit

Natasha Lawes Gold antlers

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L’ego et les couleurs...

Même masqué, Spike donne au graffiti un tout nouveau visage, plus avenant que celui grimé par beaucoup de ses pairs,disons plus traditionnels. C’est peut-être dû au fait que lui n’est ni dans la revendication ni dans la justification futile. De toute façon,il faut dire les choses telles qu’elles sont: un graffeur, à moins d’habiter une ville assiégée, ça ne peint souvent que pour sa propre gloire, non?

Entretien réalisé par Kalonji Tshinza. Portrait par Andrés Léjona.

Spike, cela fait plus de 15 ans que vous peignez.

En janvier, vous avez présenté Delayed: The very last interventions at the former airport dans la partie galerie d’Extrabold, une série de photos qui vous montre à l’œuvre dans l’ancienne aérogare du Findel. Était-ce là l’intervention d’un artiste graffiti ou de ce que l’on qualifie, ces jours-ci, de street artist ?

J’ai longtemps réfléchi à la question, et aujourd’hui, je peux dire que je ne me vois toujours pas comme un street artist. Ce que je fais n’est porteur d’aucun message, ce qui n’est pas le cas du street artist : lui va chercher à interpeller les gens dans la rue. Moi, je me concentre sur les cinq lettres qui forment mon nom, c’est tout. Dans ce sens-là, on retrouve bien l’éthique du graffeur qui peint par pur egotrip. Ce qu’il faut savoir, c’est que le terme exact en anglais pour graffeur est graffiti writer, ensuite il y a eu le terme graffiti artist, qui est déjà un peu plus controversé parce qu’il présuppose que le graff est forcément un art. De là, on en est arrivé à ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui le street artist, où l’accent est vraiment mis sur l’art, son interprétation et, si possible, sa mise en valeur en galerie.

Expliquez-nous la genèse de ce projet qui, à la base, n’était pas censé devenir une exposition.

J’ai un jour entendu dire dans la presse que l’ancien aéroport serait rasé. Du coup, je me suis informé pour savoir s’il n’y avait pas moyen de faire quelque chose à l’intérieur, juste avant. On m’a prié d’envoyer une demande écrite, mais il s’est écoulé plus d’un an entre l’envoi de la lettre et l’obtention d’une autorisation.

Qu’est-ce qui vous plaisait dans l’idée de peindre dans un aéroport, abandonné de surcroît ?

J’aimais l’idée d’avoir un terrain privé rien qu’à moi. Quiconque a déjà peint dans un bâtiment désaffecté dira qu’il y règne une certaine ambiance, comme une aura chargée d’histoire. C’est assez fort d’être seul dans un lieu si immense et si insolite, où le contact ne se fait qu’entre toi et les murs, et rien d’autre. Tu entres dans un monde parallèle, fermé sur toi-même. J’aimais aussi cette idée d’un lieu éphémère. Une dernière intervention, et puis tout disparaît.

Les démarches ayant duré un an, combien de temps avez-vous passé à l’ouvrage ?

L’opération m’a pris un bon mois sur le calendrier, mais j’ai eu passé 15 jours à l’intérieur du Findel même.

Vous dites que cela a été un choc de voir l’état du bâtiment…

Oui, il était dans un état de vétusté incroyable.

Je ne m’attendais pas à une telle détérioration. Le lieu avait été fermé à peine un an et demi auparavant, mais on aurait cru que ça faisait 10 ans qu’il était à l’abandon. C’était impressionnant de voir à quel point ce qu’on disait être un modèle en termes de modernisme avait mal vieilli, avec tout ce mobilier de couleur orange et cette moquette.

Lorsque j’y suis allé la première fois pour inspecter les lieux, toutes les salles étaient encore meublées. Je pensais, par exemple, peindre en contrastant avec les chaises dans la salle d’attente.

Mais, entretemps, il y avait eu une vente aux enchères. L’aéroport était quasiment vide, désert.

D’un côté, je me suis dit tant mieux, parce que ça m’a poussé à repenser mon intervention et à me concentrer sur des détails, uniquement.

En somme, vous êtes parti d’un point fixe pour développer une idée autour.

Oui, les gens lors de l’expo m’ont d’ailleurs demandé si pour les photos, j’avais d’abord commencé par installer un décor avant d’attaquer les murs, alors que c’était vraiment l’inverse. C’est, par exemple, la couleur d’un drapeau en berne qui a inspiré les tons bleus d’une de mes fresques.

Combien de temps passiez-vous sur un dessin ?

D’ailleurs, comment les appelez-vous ? On dirait des ovnis aux formes organiques ou des éclats de verre regroupés…

Ce sont mes « Sputniks », on va dire. Mais vous avez raison, ça rappelle aussi des éclats de verre rassemblés, avec des bouts qui s’en détachent.

Pour Delayed, cela variait entre une et une heure et demie pour les plus petites et cinq heures en moyenne pour les grandes. Il fallait que je sois discipliné. Je ne pouvais pas me pointer n’importe quand, et peindre aussi longtemps que je le voulais. Chaque jour, c’était comme aller en Allemagne de l’Est. Il fallait passer la douane, alors que l’endroit était vide. Toutes mes entrées et sorties

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étaient hyper réglementées. Cela m’a aussi forcé à m’organiser différemment. Admettons qu’un jour, je peigne une grande fresque, le lendemain, j’en produisais quatre petites pour garder un aperçu équilibré.

Ces contraintes ont-elles directement influé sur votre peinture ?

Oui, je pense que ça se voit dans les formes des dessins. Graphiquement, j’ai voulu que les lignes soient le plus droites possible. J’étais beaucoup plus obstiné que d’habitude. J’ai voulu quelque chose de très net, en cassure avec le côté un peu flou dans les mélanges de couleurs que propose souvent le graffiti. J’ai travaillé en utilisant du ruban adhésif pour un résultat que je voulais super clean. Il y a aussi ce côté restrictif qui, je crois, fait écho à l’interdiction que j’ai reçue d’accéder à certaines salles, par mesure de sécurité. J’ai quand même pu m’introduire dans les anciennes loges VIP (rires). J’aime ce

genre de contraintes, que ce soient celles liées au temps ou à un mur qui n’est pas droit. Ce sont des petits défis que je m’entête à relever.

par ta gourmandise et que tu en fasses trop. C’est dans la nature de l’homme de toujours vouloir en faire plus qu’il n’en faut.

À quoi pensiez-vous lorsque vous peigniez ? À ce que l’endroit en lui-même m’inspirait. J’ai d’abord fait un travail de repérage et chaque coin – de la salle des douanes à la loge grand-ducale – transmettait quelque chose de particulier que j’ai essayé d’interpréter. Mais j’étais surtout très concentré, de un, parce que je peignais à même le mur, et donc je n’avais pas droit à l’erreur, et de deux, parce que je devais procéder à un certain rythme. Le temps m’était compté, il ne fallait pas trop réfléchir.

En gros, êtes-vous satisfait du résultat ?

Oui, absolument. C’est à ce jour mon plus gros projet, avec une sélection d’une trentaine de pièces. C’était assez stressant, parce que plus la date du bouclage approchait, moins je savais ce que je voulais montrer. En plus, il restait encore tellement d’endroits où dessiner. J’ai dû faire un choix, et je crois vraiment que j’ai retenu ce qui en jetait le plus, à mes yeux. L’expo en elle-même a très bien marché, c’est dû au fait que tout le monde a une histoire commune avec le Findel, de près ou de loin. C’était marrant de voir comment les gens essayaient, à travers les photos, de trouver une parcelle à laquelle s’identifier.

Y avait-il un pincement au cœur au moment de quitter les lieux ? (hésite) Oui, peut-être un petit. Mais c’est aussi bien comme ça. Ça évite que tu te laisses porter

C’est vrai que pour moi, un artiste est quelqu’un qui ne reste pas cantonné dans une pensée d’idées. C’est important de s’ouvrir à tout. En tant que graffeur, tu ne peux pas juste te nourrir de graffiti et de ce qui est déjà là sur un mur, à portée de main. C’est réducteur !

Dans Delayed, il s’agit autant d’une exposition de photos que de peinture. Expliquez-nous le rôle joué par votre ami, David Laurent, photographe.

David m’a donné quelques conseils sur le cadrage pour certaines prises, mais il m’a surtout aidé sur le plan technique. Je savais que je voulais des photos à très grande échelle, mais je ne possédais pas le bon appareil. J’avais déjà photographié toutes les pièces. Lui est venu et a repris exactement les mêmes photos, à partir des mêmes angles, et a ensuite retravaillé l’éclairage là où il fallait.

Un aéroport est aussi un symbole de liberté, s’il en est, et d’interrelation avec le monde. Est-ce que cela définit aussi qui est Spike en tant qu’artiste ? J’ajoute au passage que l’ancienne aérogare qui a été inaugurée en 1975 et vous avez pratiquement le même âge.

Oui, c’est assez marrant. C’est vrai que pour moi, un artiste est quelqu’un qui ne reste pas cantonné dans une pensée d’idées. C’est important de s’ouvrir à tout. En tant que graffeur, tu ne peux pas juste te nourrir de graffiti et de ce qui est déjà là sur un mur, à portée de main. C’est réducteur ! Au contraire, il faut garder un esprit ouvert et les yeux rivés sur ce qui se passe autour de toi. Je peux aussi bien être inspiré par les cultures chinoises, japonaises ou africaines que par un détail repéré dans la rue. Ou carrément par un truc tout bête, comme la façon dont les bus de la ville sont peints. Je verrais bien un de mes graffs posés sur le flanc d’un bus…

Ou d’un avion…

Ce qui serait une suite logique (rires).

Si c’est par ego pur que vous graffez, comme vous dites, pourquoi ne montrez-vous jamais votre visage ?

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Parce que ce n’est pas la personne physique qui compte. C’est l’acte en lui-même. C’est comme pour les super-héros, ils sont masqués parce que c’est ce qu’ils font qui importe, pas qui ils sont.

Lois Lane s’en fout de Clark Kent, elle veut Superman. Ou bien, prenez Batman, c’est quoi son vrai nom ? On s’en fout. Voilà, c’est un peu pareil pour moi, j’aime qu’on me reconnaisse rien qu’au style.

Et peindre dans un lieu auquel finalement, personne n’a plus accès aujourd’hui, n’est-ce pas le contraire d’une démarche egotrip ? Non, c’est justement de l’egotrip parce que je le fais pour moi.

Même s’il n’y avait pas eu toute cette histoire d’expo, je l’aurais fait. Avec l’expo, c’est sûr que tout ça a pris une autre proportion, et j’en suis très très content.

Oui, quelque part, on pourrait dire que mon style a été un peu marqué par la série « The Transformers », quand on voit comment les différentes parties de mes peintures s’encastrent les unes dans les autres.

Vous évoquiez les super-héros. Est-ce qu’on retrouve des super-héros dans la culture de Spike adolescent, quand il dessinait ses premières esquisses ?

Vous comptez parmi les jeunes artistes luxembourgeois « dans le vent », pourtant on sent un certain recul par rapport au monde de l’art...

Je ne recherche pas que la gloire ou la fame, comme on dit dans le jargon. Je n’ai ni site web ni blog, je n’ai pas de message à faire passer. Je ne cherche pas non plus nécessairement à être présent dans les galeries. Je le répète, s’il n’y avait pas eu Extrabold et tous ceux autour, j’aurais quand même peint dans l’aéroport. Si je n’aime pas trop le côté « expo », en revanche, j’adore tout ce qui a trait à l’édition. J’aime le toucher du papier, son odeur, la valeur d’un livre en tant qu’objet. Je préférerais que mon prochain projet soit une publication plutôt qu’une exposition.

La meilleure école pour apprendre le graffiti s’appelle la rue. Ça dépasse l’apprentissage du style. C’est elle qui va exacerber ton envie et ta curiosité. Elle va te montrer comment gérer ta peur. L’école de la rue t’apprend aussi à être malin, à savoir contourner les règles.

Hormis, les héros, la musique, peut-être ?

Oui, enfin, j’écoute énormément de musique mais pas forcément pour peindre. Là, je préfère me laisser bercer par le bruit, « l’âme » du lieu en question. Je respecte ceux qui disent que le graffiti est une discipline hip-hop et que la musique qui va avec est le rap, mais ce n’est pas du tout une règle à suivre. Comme je ne limite pas ma curiosité, je ne vais pas non plus me limiter à un style de musique.

Et puis, mes goûts ont vachement changé avec l’âge. J’écoute de tout, et c’est tant mieux.

Et que pensez-vous des collaborations entre artistes issus du graffiti et le milieu de la mode, chose qui est de plus en plus fréquente, aujourd’hui ? Je pense, par exemple, à votre collègue, l’Anglais Insa, pour Nike.

Je ne sais pas. Si un projet intéressant se présente, pourquoi pas ? Ce que je veux avant tout, c’est évoluer en m’amusant. Pour ce qui est des vêtements, je n’ai encore jamais rien créé pour de grosses marques. Je sais qu’il y a des gens qui sont contre, parce que ça va à l’encontre de leur côté engagé contre le « système », mais personnellement, ça ne me dérange pas plus que ça. Pour ce qui est d’Insa, il ne pouvait pas mieux tomber que chez Nike, lui qui dans son temps libre a toujours aimé customiser des paires de baskets. Et puis, le fétichisme du pied est un thème récurrent dans ses œuvres.

La règle générale dans le graffiti veut qu’on commence par en faire illégalement, et qu’on s’expose donc à un danger, parfois même mortel, avant d’être reconnu publiquement. N’y a-t-il pas un paradoxe?

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C’est là un risque à prendre, c’est vrai, mais je reste persuadé que la meilleure école pour apprendre le graffiti s’appelle la rue. Ça dépasse l’apprentissage du style. C’est elle qui va exacerber ton envie et ta curiosité. Elle va te montrer comment gérer ta peur. L’école de la rue t’apprend aussi à être malin, à savoir contourner les règles.

Oui, on est dans l’illégal mais on répond aussi à une envie qu’on a tous à un moment donné dans notre vie, qui est de passer de l’autre côté de la barrière et de braver l’interdit. Beaucoup de gens n’osent pas le faire, et gardent un certain regret.

La rue te le permet et en plus, elle te rend plus débrouillard. Maintenant, c’est à chacun de connaître ses limites et de savoir quand s’arrêter avant que ça ne dégénère ou, comme vous dites, ne devienne trop dangereux.

Si votre enfant vous apprend qu’il aimerait se lancer dans le graffiti, qu’est-ce que vous dites ? (réfléchit) Je ne pourrai de toute façon pas l’en empêcher. Je lui dirai juste de faire gaffe.

C’est tout ?

Oui, bon, je serai aussi son mentor. Ça va de soi.

Votre éthique est celle du graffeur, pourtant quand on voit vos réalisations, on se pose la question : est-ce encore du graffiti ? Ou alors du graffiti abstrait ?

Je préfère laisser les autres décider à ma place.

Il y a, parmi les amateurs de graffiti et les graffeurs, ceux qui aiment le fait que ce soit quelque chose de frais et de différent. D’autres disent que ce n’est plus du graff, tellement on n’arrive plus à lire quoi que ce soit, alors que pour moi, ça reste le plus souvent mes cinq lettres. Ceux qui ne sont pas du milieu cherchent à interpréter la raison de certains traits, de certains contours, et c’est bien comme ça. N’importe qui peut s’imaginer ce qu’il veut à travers ma peinture.

Tele, ça a pris une autre dimension. J’ai commencé à moins me focaliser sur la décoration de mes graffs, et plus sur la forme et le mouvement du lettrage. Je l’ai étiré au maximum pour libérer du champ au-dessus et en dessous de la surface. Le reste est venu progressivement, mais toujours assez naturellement.

L’idée serait-elle de tendre vers des formes parfaitement symétriques, sans plus aucune dynamique ?

Oui, peut-être (rires). Ou bien de retourner vers le rococo, histoire de montrer que la boucle est bouclée. Le temps nous le dira.

En quoi votre métier de graphiste affecte-t-il votre travail à la bombe ?

En pratiquement rien du tout. D’abord, ce sont deux univers que j’essaie de séparer le plus possible l’un de l’autre. Et puis de toute façon, la démarche n’est pas pareille dans les deux domaines. En tant que graphiste, je suis au service d’un client. Je dois apporter une solution à un problème donné. Je ne suis pas libre dans mes choix.

En tant que graffeur, la seule question que je me pose, c’est quoi mettre sur quel support. S’il y a quelque chose que je dois quand même à mes études, c’est la maîtrise et l’équilibre entre les couleurs. C’est à peu près tout.

Depuis 2000, vous vous efforcez à travailler dans l’épure, étant passé d’un lettrage boursoufflé à un amas de lignes pour la création de ces « Sputniks » quasi squelettiques. Qu’est-ce qui a déclenché ce changement aussi radical ?

C’est suite à des discussions avec un ancien collègue de Sumo (graffeur Luxembourgeois), Turna, un graffeur allemand avec qui il avait étudié, et Tele, un graffeur danois rencontré au Luxembourg, que je me suis mis à repenser la manière de travailler un mur. Tous les deux parlaient de le déstructurer et d’ensuite le recomposer, de jouer avec les espaces en laissant des vides. Sumo et moi étions déjà dans une démarche de réappropriation du mur, mais avec ce que disaient et faisaient Turna et

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Ashes to ashes John Gripenholm started his career working as a photo

assistant for 6 years while shooting his own projects including

editorials and portraits. Since then he has worked for magazines such as Rodeo, 125, Dazed &Confused, Style100, Bon and others.

He recently had his second solo exhibition in Stockholm and is working on the next one already.

John is represented by Sylvie in Stockholm. www.sylvie.se

Photographer: john gripenholm @ sylvie Make-up: sophia eriksen @ agent bauer Hair: linda shalabi @ mika looks Model: mikaela @ mikas

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Chameleon Man He may be alone in his ability to combine science with glamour and adjust to all possible clients. It’s time to meet unconventional and innovative French designer Mathieu Lehanneur, who seems to have invented the term crossdisciplinary.

Interview by Merel Kokhuis. Portrait by Sébastien Agnetti.

What should we know about Mathieu Lehanneur?

I don’t know. Who is Mathieu Lehanneur? I’m a 35-year-old designer, based in Paris. When I grew up I wanted to become an artist. I wanted to paint, make installations, etc. But, after a couple of months at art school in Versailles I figured I would be a very bad artist. And then design appeared to be an easier field to me. Easy in a way that there’s always an answer. If your design object is not beautiful, you can always say it’s functional.

And if it’s not functional at all, you can say; hey, but at least it’s beautiful. So, in that way I always avoid having people think that I’m a bad artist.

But is there a difference between art and design?

The boundaries are blurry, you can easily move from the first to the second. But in design the first step is always the request, the question from the client. That’s where you start. Even if you end up not answering that question it was your starting point. In art there is no question. Art is a way for artists to express themselves. They don’t work for a client, but have to find their own question. And I need a question. I need the question from outside to open my mind. In contradiction to some other designers, I don’t have any problem working with the demands of a client. I need it, and I love it.

Is that your standard way of working?

Yes, and it already started when I was graduating from the ENSCI design school in Paris. The teachers asked me to write a thesis on a design-

related topic. I couldn’t come up with my own subject; I needed questions from others that I could answer. I asked five people from different professions to provide me with the most important question in their job, and then I tried to find answers for them. You can think of a financial controller, a doctor, a psychologist. The psychologist, for example, asked me why parents always think they are smarter than their kids. Her question inspired me to develop an IQ test that was suitable for all ages. There were no good or bad answers, just solutions and choices. The goal was not to give the perfect answer; my goal was to show that, as a designer, I am able to adjust to different professional fields, even if the brief is far removed from my own profession.

Do you still work like that now, 10 years after graduating?

Always! I ask the client for a brief all the time.

Sometimes it’s just one word, but that’s ok. I personally try to find an answer to the question or a solution to the problem the client gives me. My colleagues help me with the research. I design the object in my head and draw it on the white board.

And from that one of my colleagues finalizes the details on the computer. Before I hand over the project it should be clear in terms of - even though I hate the words - concept or scenario. Most of the time the shape is not defined by that stage. I believe the mind is the best tool with which to design, better than white paper or the computer.

The mind is best able to visualize the idea. You can turn the object around in your head, change it immediately. It’s fast and efficient. Brains can draw more than hands. When I drive through Paris on my motorcycle, my projects all get an equal share of my brain’s attention.

You are now working for Biotherm. Can you describe the process so far?

The cosmetic company Biotherm asked me to think of a way to communicate something which is not so easy. Thermal plankton is one of the ingredients in some of their products. It’s a good and efficient thing but Biotherm is afraid people don’t like the fact that there’s bacteria, living micro organisms, in, for example, their facial cream.

They saw my icro algue project and admired the way I made an unsexy product appealing. They

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Local River,

home storage unit for fish and greens, 2008 Materials glass blown & thermoformed, water pump, joints Client: Artists Space, New York

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wanted me to do the same for their thermal plankton - to turn it into a glamorous object. To combine science with a glamorous approach.

Why did you immediately start your own company after graduating? No need to get more experienced first?

I was absolutely sure I wanted my own design firm immediately. I am the youngest of six kids, so I was always the little one everybody was trying to watch, teach and raise. I didn’t want to work for another designer because I didn’t want another father, I wanted to do it all by myself. I didn’t want anybody to tell me what I should or shouldn’t do. But I don’t think you can say it was a real company in the beginning. It was just me, alone on my bed with my laptop. Only after four years did I hire my first employee. Before I started I did one internship, though. Not at a design firm, but at a graphic design agency. Funny thing is; because I never worked for another designer I don’t know how a designer should work. I never learned the

rules. But after some time I developed my own system. The only problem I still have sometimes is the time-money question. How much time should I spend on one project with regards the budget the client gives me? I have to admit I sometimes wonder how Philippe Starck would do it. Or Ron Arad. I’m not saying I want to do it exactly like them, I just wonder.

It’s an interesting and unexpected choice to go to a graphic design agency. Why exactly?

The graphic designer I’m talking about was one of my teachers at the design school. He had to teach graphic design, but he spoke about everything other than graphic design. He talked about people, magic, etc. But not about his profession.

It was a kind of storytelling, not in a marketing approach, but in a real way. I was extremely interested in this way of working. For each new project he transformed into a new person. He reinvented himself over and over again and did a lot of research. You have to know this is a very

I have to admit I sometimes wonder how Philippe Starck would do it.

Or Ron Arad. I’m not saying I want to do it exactly like them, I just wonder.

Andrea, living air purifier absorbing undesired effects

of contaminated air by the profusion of manufactured goods, 2009 In collaboration with David Edwards, Harvard University Client: Le Laboratoire Award Best Invention Award, Popular Science, USA

tiring way of working, it demands a lot from a person. I had absolutely no interest in graphic design whatsoever, I just admired this man. Under his supervision I developed myself and am now able to adjust to the needs of several different clients. I work on a project for an eleventh century Roman church, for the French postal company La Poste, etc. I’m glad I don’t have to choose. I want to jump from history to technology and back.

Is that why you collaborate with people from so many different fields?

Absolutely! Ever since I worked on my graduation project I try to involve other disciplines.

Cross-discipline is a great thing. For my scientific projects I collaborate with David Edwards, a science professor at Harvard. It’s fantastic that people want to work with me because they recognize a specific approach in my work. The job to do the Roman church was an indirect result of my previous work. The priest of the church valued how deep I dive into my projects. I am not specialized in religion, or in furniture, but he still wanted me to design the new altar, pulpit and baptism basin.

He liked the way I try to make the new context my own. Eventually I designed it in a way that it seems to emerge from the floor, as if it was already there before the church was built. The stone I used emits a special kind of energy and gives visitors the idea that it’s only the top of the mountain; the rest must be underneath the surface, just like an iceberg.

Many of your designs are influenced by nature.

Can we speak about an obsession with nature?

Many people think I’m obsessed with nature, but I’m not. When you ask me how I, as a nature lover, can live in the big and polluted city of Paris, I have an easy answer. I don’t have to be in Paris, I just am. After my graduation I never really left.

Maybe I will move to the countryside in ten or twenty years, I don’t know. But it’s not because of an obsession with nature, not even a special interest. I don’t especially care about nature and I don’t care about science, either. In fact I have a special interest in human beings. The human being is a complex creature. Complex in terms of chemistry, psychology, physiology. And we are always in contact, in relation with our surroundings. These surroundings can be the global environment, a church, a family, a lover. The things I make, I design to improve the daily life of the people around me. To improve city life. www.mathieulehanneur.com

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Scenography of tomorrow now ­– Exhibition at Mudam (Museum of Modern Art Luxembourg). 2007

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The Island, by Airmineral, 2010 Natural Marine Biospray

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Once Upon a Dream, Sleeping Capsule, 2010

Designed for Hôtel de Marc, Rheims for Veuve Cliquot

Presented at the design fair in Zona Tortona, Milan & during London’s design week

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Interior design of St Hillaire church in Melle, France, 2010

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Fallen Angel Pierre Dal Corso was born in 1977 in the South West of France. He studied Art History and Photography, prior to his job as assistant between Paris and New York for a few years. Currently based in Paris, he dedicates his time working for fashion magazines and personal art projects.

Photographer: PIERRE DAL CORSO Photo assistant: ADELINE GAUVAIN Stylist: MARZ ATASHI Stylist assistant: JEROME TIERCELET Make-up: EVA M’BAYE @ B4 agency, Paris Manucure: KAMEL @ B4 agency, Paris Model: LARA SWIECICKI @ Trend's , Paris

Special thanks to STUDIO SALA, Paris

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ERES fishnet bra

PAULE KA belt and panties

LACOSTE footless

GASPARD YURKIEVICH stilettos

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WOLFORD silk t-shirt

ERES panties

PAULE KA cream high socks

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LACOSTE red-pink footless

EMANUEL UNGARO stilettos PAULE KA jersey knit-shirt FALKE arm warmers

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AMERICAN APPAREL

pink classic ballet tutu

PAULE KA cream jersey t-shirt

BLOCH pointe shoe closeouts

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Photographer: Steeve Beckouet Stylist: Matthieu Pabiot

Make-up: Christopher Kam @ Airport Agency Hair: Helene Bidard @ Artlist Paris Model: Simon @ Major Paris

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JOHN GALLIANO Multicolor silk corset underwear LIE SANG BONG Black silk mousseline cape NATALIA BRILLI Gold leather necklace MAISON MICHEL Fishnet and silk hat

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MAISON MICHEL Black felt capeline MARC JACOBS Black wool asymmetrical pants

YVES SAINT LAURENT Printed cotton corset MAISON FABRE Black and white tweed gloves

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MAISON MARTIN MARGIELA Black fur shapka

WALTER VAN BEIRENDONCK Cristal necklace

ROMAIN KREMER Fluorescent top and micro jacket

GIVENCHY by Riccardo Tisci White cotton shirt with pleated front

REPETTO Black tulle underskirt.

GARETH PUGH Grey wool pleated skirt pants

Stylist’s own High waisted black skirt and lace gloves

Stylist’s own High waisted black skirt

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alexander mcqueen printed and embroidered turtleneck, rope printed hood, LOUIS VUITTON gloves, pant & brown leather and neopren skirt

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H.P., The Innovator Harri Peccinotti is a photographer and graphic designer. Born in London in 1935, he started his career as a commercial artist designing record covers and working in advertising before gaining international recognition as the founding art director of British women’s magazine Nova in the 1960s. As art director, his distinct graphic design work was also deployed for other magazines such as Flair, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone and Vogue both before and after Nova.

Interview by Sven Ehmann. Portrait by Eric Chenal / Blitz

In addition, he designed French newspaper Le Matin de Paris. From the mid 60s he focused more and more on photography and developed a graphic, yet very sensual style, which was featured on the pages of fashion magazines as well as in the 1968 and 1969 editions of the renowned Pirelli calendar. From 1972 to 1985 he produced a series of photography books on ethnic communities in countries as diverse as Nigeria, Cameroon, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy and Japan, among others. A book about the full spectrum of his work was put together by Giorgio de Mitri for publisher Damiani in 2008. Its title is simple and graphic, H.P. At the age of 75 Mr. Peccinotti now lives in Paris. He continues to shoot fashion and advertisements and is a photography consultant for French weekly news magazine Le Nouvel Observateur.

We talked to Mr. Peccinotti about magazines, nudity, feminism and growing older.

What makes a good magazine?

I am visually attracted by crazy pictures or some nice typography, but just for a moment.

There is no longer any magazine that I go out to buy for its content. Maybe I am old and not interested in the things they are talking about. I somehow think the magazines in the 1960s and 70s were much more politically aware. Not that much about the superficial. What always really attracts me is the content.

You left your creative mark on one of those politically aware magazines of the 1960s in Britain.

How did you become the art director of Nova?

I had been working on some established magazines before, doing some redesigning or upgrading, and I also worked for advertising agencies and even for that publisher, when their managing director asked me whether I was interested in doing the Nova project.

At that time graphic designers had started becoming interested in magazines. David Hamilton was art director at Queen, Tom Wolsey at (Man About) Town, Willy Fleckhaus at Twen. Everyone was getting a bit fed up with advertising and magazines were a chance to do something new.

The idea was that Nova would be an intelligent magazine for women. How did you approach that idea? Was there a design concept, a vision for the style of such a new format?

I don’t think I had a particular vision at the beginning. It was an ongoing process.

First of all it was a dummy to find out if there was a readership for that sort of a publication. It was a rare sort of magazine that did not exist until that point, in fact.

I was interested in the content. There were lots of good writers and other good people in it, which was the main thing for me at the time. Nova was about writing serious pieces. I started going to the editorial meetings to listen and to find out what was happening. The thing was to be much more involved in the content as an art director than normal. It wasn’t just a question of laying it out. It was a question of discovering what was the most important part, and then adding my bit to it. And then it was a question of looking at the content and deciding how to create a layout to draw attention to it, and to do that as graphically as I could.

The first editor was Harry Fieldhouse, but then a guy called Dennis Hackett became the editor. He came from Queen. He was a much more serious journalist and had good ideas, good cover ideas and good headings. Hackett was crucial for the content of Nova. He was a good editor. He knew about words and made things much easier to work with. When he arrived everything changed and moved forward.

Working with him was not like a complete carte blanche. Putting type on the pages, cutting pictures and all that created stress at times, but if

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he felt that you were sincere and confident about what you were doing he would give in after a bit of an argument. Or, if you realized he was right, then you gave in. But mostly there was a lot of argueing.

Besides designing the headline font “harry fat face” and laying out the magazine, you also had massive influence on the overall visual style of the photography at Nova.

We were very much “on the streets of London” at the time, in all ways. Both visually and editorially. Hackett was up with all the best writers and all the women’s liberation people. They were arriving at the magazine. They started getting their message across.

But what sticks out for me personally is that I bought a set of pictures from an American about the birth of a baby. Which probably were the first ever published. I bought it when the editor wasn’t there and I paid for it. First they didn’t want to put it in, but then they did and in the end the magazine sold out in about two weeks. You could not find a copy,

because no one had seen that in a national magazine before. Not the truth. Not the real thing of a baby coming out of a woman. That was a real shock.

On the other hand, we created the fashion thing.

The first issues contained no fashion. There was no big color picture story. My argument was that there should be something in the middle - red paper, or anything - that would draw readers’ attention. So that when you would pick it up and flip through, you would see something. Whether it would be fashion or a different topic every month, it would be 12 pages of solid, double spread feeling.

And it turned out to be fashion. But it was not real fashion; it was not controlled by the fashion industry. It was just controlled by an idea. I had a whole collection of sports clothes and we did a story with those names and numbers. Long before that was happening. The story was colorful and worked and had an idea, rather than just showing clothes.

Advertising was not that important in the beginning when it was still tested as a magazine.

But when it started to be successful, the interest

Advertising was not that important in the beginning when it was still tested as a magazine. But when it started to be successful, the interest of the big company that owned it grew and they put it under more pressure.

of the big company that owned it grew and they put it under more pressure. Nova became a product in itself. They did not change it that much after Hackett and I left, but it was as if it had the brakes put on it. At the start it was all about trying to have more ideas, better ideas each time.

Whereas at the end, when it collapsed, it had become restricted in its format and it was in need of finding advertising. They were prepared for the loss at the start, but then when it began to break even and even to sell a decent amount they began to think: this should make money now.

And then it was more about maintaining status, rather than developing it further?

Yes. I think so. That is only my opinion, of course.

Were you involved with the relaunch in 2000?

No. I don’t know anything about that at all. I was not involved, nor was David Hillmann who was the art director for most of the good issues of Nova. He came from the Sunday Times. I created the start, but he carried on until the end. We even did a book together about it.

I saw it online for about 350 euros.

That’s not worth it. But it tells the story.

From the design perspective, what was the most important element in Nova?

Maybe the cover. It was very strong in the beginning. We usually had a one-line heading and an illustration for it. Very simple, very good, strong words, short, to the point and provocative.

Was Nova an international success story?

I don’t think it went very far. It was often banned in Ireland because of naked girls on the cover, but I don’t think it was very international.

You could find it, but only if you were interested.

There was a growing interest in magazine design. There was Twen, Town, Queen, maybe also Playboy and McCall’s. At all those magazines the art direction became important in the way of presenting content. I think all those magazines learned from one another design-wise.

I couldn’t read the content of Twen, but visually I knew it. We did some odd things for Twen. Willy Fleckhaus used to go on holiday and then got somebody to come over and do the month when he was away. I also used to take photographs for Twen.

Do you still have a passion for magazines? Is that something you have always been interested in?

I sort of look at magazines, but I don’t really buy that many magazines any more. I used to

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Nova January 1969

Art director Derek Birdsall

Nova

Art Director David Hillman

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Nova January 1974

Art director David Hillman

Nova October 1971

Art Director David Hillman

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buy every issue of Show and others. Now I buy things purely by looking at them and then picking one up. I have no feeling that I need to subscribe or buy them every month. I lost that a little bit.

I had been doing all sorts of pictures, fashion and so on. I always liked women, so I photographed them a lot, even before Nova. I don’t care what they look like in the sense that I don’t need a model or a famous person. Just a girl.

What if you could start a magazine again today.

What would it be about?

I think it would be an intelligent person’s magazine these days. Because I don’t think the intelligent women’s magazine is a problem anymore.

When Nova came out it was a problem and that is the only reason it was different from Twen and all the others. It was really aimed at women. And it dealt with the serious problems that women had at that time. But now I think those problems have cleared up. Mostly.

How did you develop ideas for stories? Did you write scripts, etc.?

I worked very spontaneously, or semi-spontaneously at least. The idea was to find the clothes and then the story for the clothes. Sometimes the story even came from the location. Once we went to Morocco and the story was about a girl finding water.

In current media you are often pinned down to your sexy photographs. Whether they are sexy or sensual or about identity and self-expression. I wonder how those images went together with the idea of Nova being for the most progressive women at that time?

For some unknown reason, that didn’t cause any problems. It was strange. But I never thought I was making pornographic pictures. We never had any trouble with the women writers who were very left, very aggressive. They did not seem to worry about it at that time. It was more in the 80s when women got upset about girls with no clothes on.

And how did the graphic aspect of your style develop?

I always fell for the close-up, graphic style.

Maybe because I was a graphic designer and could handle it better that way.

Or maybe because I have been cropping rubbish out of pictures as an art director for quite a long time. As a photographer I tried to leave the rubbish out while taking the picture.

Picture editors don’t do that any more.

We cropped everything. So did Twen. If you got a bad picture, make a double page spread from it and crop it… (laughs) To me cropping is a tool to enhance an image.

Today no one is doing that anymore but every-

When I first started work there was no Letraset or anything. So you had to do hand lettering for your roughs and draw your pictures, rough ideas of pictures.

You had to learn to draw. You used paper and cut stuff up with scissors.

Pirelli calendar 1969

Art director Derek Birdsall

one is using Photoshop and postproduction instead.

Does that make sense to you as a concept?

Not really. I hardly use it at all. Sometimes I am forced to. I am just not very good at it. I only own a pocket digital camera.

When I first started work there was no Letraset or anything. So you had to do hand lettering for your roughs and draw your pictures, rough ideas of pictures. You had to learn to draw. You used paper and cut stuff up with scissors.

Today I go into the office of one of the art directors I work with and he doesn’t even have a pencil on his desk! He never touches anything, just looks at the screen all day. He is never in touch with materials. He does not pick up a ruler, cut with a knife, stick with a bit of glue. I miss that a lot. Even now when I do covers in Indesign, it never looks quite the same. It looks OK on the screen, but when you print it you have to reassess it and then do it again and again. There seems to be quite a difference between the screen and the printed page.

I feel the same is true about editing. There is a lot of talk about visual storytelling these days, but the ability to tell a story in images was somehow much more elaborate in the 60s, or even before in magazines like VU or Life. How did you learn about editing?

I don’t know. I think it was just the natural progression of graphic design at that time. Everything was moving in that sort of direction. As a photographer I am much more influenced by painters than by anything else. Bauhaus and Schwitters influence you a lot when you are young and when you are thinking about design. Then, when you are actually doing work, the image changes due to the fact that it is not 1920 or 1918.

Suddenly you are in the 1960s, things are happening. You are still using the same techniques, but the look is more modern because of the surroundings. To find a nipple in a magazine in the 1960s was quite hard. To avoid one today is almost impossible.

But, apart from the technology, the basics have not changed very much. It is still the same problem all the time.

It is always a blank page.

Except - and I sound like an old man now - the word itself was much more valued. When I go back to the old magazines, they look awful to me.

Some of the graphic design pages are OK, but the actual magazines are pretty dreadful. In comparison, the feel is not that good. But people tried to make things readable, whereas now I pick up magazines and I can’t read them.

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1967

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Nova August 1974

Art Director David Hillman

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Le Matin

September 1982

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You always seemed to try to celebrate the content and to find the appropriate form for getting it across. Where did that start? You said in your book “it comes down to seeing the possibilities of the final use while taking the picture...”

When I was working with David Hackett we collaborated a lot. We knew what was being done on the page. So when I shot the picture, I would know which one was going to be a double page spread. I would even know whether it would need a little bit of type to help it. Therefore I got into the habit of thinking a bit “magaziney” when taking pictures.

I see an interesting tendency in independent magazines towards more of an object quality, and I am curious to see whether that will also lead to a higher content quality as well. What do you think?

I used to work for some of those younger magazines and the thing is: they don’t pay anymore. I don’t mind not being paid, but I don’t like to pay to work. I think that is a little immoral. They seem to have made their whole magazine function like that, and I don’t understand how young photographers manage to get on. They must find that unbelievably difficult. There seem to be hundreds of magazines and nobody is paying anybody. Which is a strange concept. I mean they seem to get good people to take the pictures. But I just wonder what happens to the young ones.

Sometimes they are offered a job and it is virtually going to cost them money to do it.

How was that in your own career? What was the most difficult aspect of your career?

It just fed on itself in a weird way. When I was in my early twenties there was a group of friends and all we talked about was graphic design, painting and photography. It was somehow developing.

Magazines paid a page rate; it wasn’t much, but

they paid. Nova paid the same to everybody. It was enough. You could work. I started as a commercial artist when I left school. Then I did music, designed record sleeves, then went into advertising, then into magazines and then into photography and still bits of graphics. It continued. It is just that nothing seemed to get horribly in the way.

Maybe I was satisfied, but no I was never really satisfied.

So you grew by taking those opportunities.

Besides that, were there any personalities or specific projects that shaped your career?

I think people did that. Early on I was really lucky when I went to my first job, because the people there were more artists than graphics designers. They were people I could look up to who were very good at what they did. They looked after me and taught me. I had much more education in those three years than I had at school. I was incredibly lucky. And people like Hackett and the writers were highly intelligent. It was a good schooling. And I am still being schooled.

How about growing older throughout what is now 60 years of your professional career? What did you gain, what did you loose?

I hope I am still going forward. I mean, I sure notice that with the models I could now be their grandfather. Whereas before, when I was in my 20s, I was the same age. So there was much more of a sexual thing going on. I was part of the street at that time, whereas now I am not. I talk to other people now. But apart from that, I don’t notice it.

I don’t run that fast, but I still feel it is the same.

What are you working on right now?

I do some photography and some cover graphics for Nouvel Observateur magazine.

The type of aggression that was there when I was younger is not there anymore, although it would be better if it was.

Selfportrait (1972)

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You are 75 and still busy. It is interesting to see that photographers seem to manage a lifelong career much easier than graphic designers. Any idea why that is the case?

I don’t do cutting edge graphic design at the moment. I do nice graphic jobs, but mostly I take photographs, some posters. I am not up to my ears in it, like I was. The type of aggression that was there when I was younger is not there anymore, although it would be better if it was. But I still enjoy doing it.

You did a project for Nike that was on the Showstudio website. Is that a future market for you as well? Are you interested in that?

I almost forgot about that. I think I have only seen it once. Actually this was my first proper experience with a digital camera. They were panicking because they also had to print posters from it over night. I am quite interested in the whole digital era. But I am not very much involved.

Sometime I think that the media revolution happening right now needs some more experienced people working together with young creatives to develop not just projects but also products, markets and businesses.

I don’t know. It is a little like the guitar craze.

Everyone owned a guitar and learned three cords, but out of that comes Jimi Hendrix and one or two others. Somehow something good will come out of this mess for sure.

But the problem is: anybody can do a poster, which is good on the one side, but bad for graphic designers. Doing your own stuff is so simple now.

I think some of your work (e.g. the Pirelli California images) suggests it, but did you ever work in film or other media domains?

I used to shoot commercials a lot, and I have done some cinema graphics. I worked in all things related to graphic design and typography.

In your biography on the Showstudio website it says that you were “a musician, with notable skill as a bass trombonist”. One final question about music: I have this friend who recently started playing clarinet who says it changed his life, because it changed his way of thinking and perceiving the world around him. Did you experience the same?

After my education as a commercial artist I played in various groups, and even before, as a kid, I played in a local brass band. I don’t play anymore and I feel I miss an awful lot by not playing. But, yes, I think music is really unbelievably good for anybody. You should try it. It is better than taking Omega-3.

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Above: A recent work.

Opposite page: 1971

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Voici notre Slow Alphabet Letter!

From: a.b.a.k.e@free.fr To: mike@mikekoedinger.com Subject: Slow Alphabet / Nico Magazine

Hello Mike, here comes the slow letter.

And extra infos: SLOW ALPHABET Thank you nico for hosting.

Other letters can be seen in:

‘B’ in Sugo 0, Ma Edizioni, p.19, 2003 (I)

‘m’ in Muoto, p.39, June 2005 (FI)

flight of fancy II, last page special insert, 2003 (HK)

‘ST’ in Cream, March 2006 (HK)

‘W’ in Idn: three: volume 10: number 3: ‘C’ in Sugo 1, Ma Edizioni, p.112, 2004 (I)

‘A’ in Ryuko Tsushin vol.498, p.86, 2004 (J)

‘a’ in IDEA 309, last page of special insert, 2005 (J) ‘R’ in Graphic magazine 7, Bis, 2005 (UK) ‘H’ in Lodown 45, p.138, 2005 (D)

‘K’ in Cream, Summer issue. 01, 2005 (HK) ‘L’ in Math 2, 2005 (UK)

‘Ä’ in Tecknaren no 2, p.17, 2005 (SE) ‘X’ in [kAk], p.21, 2005 (R)

‘E’ in Esquire vol.19, no 7, p. 80, 2005 (JP) ‘Q’ in Composite, 2005 (JP)

‘M’ in Grafik 129, p.68, 2005 (UK)

‘N’ in Art4d, no. 116, p.88, 2005 (HK) ‘3’ in Axis vol. 116, p.112, 2005 (J) ‘G’ in Groove 96, p.51, 2005 (D)

‘¶’ in Metropolis M, Nr 6, 2005 (NL)

‘F’ in SP06, August 2006 (NZ)

‘Ÿ’ in Periodiek no 3, p.6, 2006 (BE)

‘G’ in Slimvolume Poster Publication, 2006/2007 (UK) ‘9’ in LUX, September 2007 (PT) ‘U’ in Ultrabold, 2007 (UK)

‘P’ in Useless no 6, 2007 (UK, USA)

‘+’ in Plus Eighty One no 35, 2007 (J)

‘g’ in Arnolfini bulletin Sept 2008 (UK) ‘S’ in Slanted #6 Herbst 2008 (D)

‘=’ in Concept Store magazine issue 01 Jan 2009 (UK) ‘I’ in Quotation #1 Autumn 2008 (Jp)

‘O’ in iconographicmagazine 2009 (Spain)

‘T’ in Forms of Inquiry Iaspis 2009 (Sweden) ‘j’ in Laser Magazine 2009 (D)

‘Z’ in Me Magazine 2009 (USA) ‘V’ in Mousse 2010 (I)

‘D’ in Arc magazine (UK)

Slow Alphabet (n), åbäke 2010

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A year in images…

As you may well have heard this past year has been quite busy for nico. Between awards, exhibitions and conferences, the magazine was more than ever faithful to its “international” calling. Here we share some pictures of the journey that took us from Arnhem’s OK Festival, Breda’s Graphic Design Festival,Rome’s Belvedere Festival, and Madrid’s De Zines exhibition to Tokyo’s Snow Café.

Award

While being showcased across the globe was quite nice, none of it was as exciting as nico’s bronze victory in the magazine category at the European Design Awards in Rotterdam this past May. The annual award ceremony celebrates the best of graphic design, illustration and interactive design in Europe.

You can also find nico in a list of publications which were released this year:

The EDAwards book in April. The de zines catalogue in July. Also in July The TypoMag Index Book - Typography in Magazines.

And finally, Turning Pages, a book on Editorial Design for Print Media by Gestalten in September.

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www.maisonmoderne.lu

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