November 2008

L1040398, originally uploaded by thefuturistics.

NOVEMBER 2008 – ARTIST INITIATED MAGAZINES

08.11 - 23.11
OPEN THURS - SUN 12 - 5

Curated by Karen Christine Tandberg and Elin Maria Olaussen (Torpedo)

ART RITE (US 1972-1978), AVALANCHE (US 1970-1976), CHARLEY (IT 2001-d.d), TELFAR CLEMENTS (US), DONNIE&TRAVIS (US), DOT DOT DOT (US 2000 – d.d), EAU DE COLOGNE (DE 1985-1993), FILE (CAN 1970-1989), GENERAL IDEA (CAN), JONAH GROENEBOER (US), INTERFUNKTIONEN (DE 1968-1975), JAMES HOFF (US), SCOTT HUG (US), K48 (US 1999-d.d), JEFF KONINGSBERG (US), MADE IN USA (US 1999-2001), NICHOLAS MESSING (US), PERMANENT FOOD (US/IT 1995-d.d), FATIMA AL QADIRI (US), REAL LIFE MAGAZINE (US 1979-1994), RE-MAGAZINE (NL 1997-2004), SLAVA MOGUTIN (US), KLAUS SCHULZE (DE), GRANT WORTH (US), ZG (UK/US 1979 - 1988).



We are concerned with the web of fact and fiction that binds and releases mythologies that are the sum experience of artists and non-artists in co-operative existence today. Every image is a self image. Every image is a mirror.
- Editorial FILE Mr.Peanut issue, vol 1, no1 1972

The exhibition November 2008 is based on a careful selection of artist initiated magazines from the 70’s until today. Art magazines play an important part in the distribution of art. The drive to create new arenas for art led to a surge of artist-produced magazines in the 70’s, and the magazine-format paved the ground for experimentation with text, information, distribution and media-realities.
Artist initiated magazines enabled the artists to work outside the galleries, take control over their own production and to reach a larger audience. November 2008 focuses on how the magazine format works as an alternative exhibition space.

The represented magazines in this exhibition have in common a DIY – attitude, where collaboration and the collective is in focus. The artist group General Idea (which consists of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal) founded, in 1972, FILE megazine. FILE was not a magazine in it’s normal sense, but one of General Ideas many art – projects. By appropriating the name and the visual profile of the well-known life-style magazine LIFE, General Idea sought a broader distribution. The thought was that the magazine format itself would lead the art out to a larger audience, no matter which content. FILE was made with the kiosk newspaper stands in mind, not the secluded art audience.
At Rekord, FILE will be shown together with original editions of General Idea. Other magazines from the same time, like Art Rite, Avalanche, Interfunktionen, Real Life, ZG and the some-what later Eau de Cologne, all made use of different strategies to present the art-scene they themselves where a part of. Artists like Joseph Beuys, Lawrence Weiner, Barbara Krüger, Cindy Sherman, Ray Johnson and more often appeared in several of them.

K48’s last number Starship Counterforce will be launched in this exhibition together with a presentation of works by selected contributors: Telfar Clements, Jonah Groenboer, Jeff Konigsberg, Nicholas Messing, Slava Mogutin, Klaus Schulze, Donnie & Travis, Fatima al Qadiri and Grant Worth. Other contemporary magazines that are shown include, among others, Dexter Sinisters magazine Dot Dot Dot, RE-magazine, Charley and Permanent Food.

Scott Hug, the man behind K48, shows a constellation of his own polaroids and images taken from the magazines Time and The New Yorker in Too Much, Too Little, Too Late. Polaroids: 2002-2007. James Hoff (US) uses the magazine as a background source for his artistic practice: Sing, Sing consists of drawings taken from a Raymon Pettibon fanzine, and the publication Topten originates from Artforums top ten column.