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CollectibleDRY 13 – Metropolis
CollectibleDRY 13 – Metropolis: on the cover Martha Hunt and Sean O’Pry
CollectibleDRY 13 – Metropolis | The metropolis, the traditional “big scene of progress” is actually the most backward and confused domain of the capital’s practices. To the point that you might ask yourself whether the modern city is less an unresolved problem than an objectively obsolete phenomenon. By demistifying the complex ideology that has accompanied this debate, influencing the shape it takes, the metropolis ceases to be a “place” in order to become a “condition”; and it is precisely this condition that is made to circulate uniformly through the social phenomenon by means of consumption. The future dimension of the metropolis coincides with that of the market… in fact, it doesn’t exist anymore a reality outside the system itself. The city no longer “represents” the system but “becomes” the system itself. Through consumption this system is radically conditioning life on our planet with the devastating effects that we are all familiar with but unable to remedy. In this issue, evocative fashion and art images describe the soul and contradictions of an imagined distopian pastpresent- future that is now prophesied. Martha Hunt and Sean O’Pry, along with other iconic faces, star in stories that unfold like the chapters of a book, suggestions from films or novels. With artists like multifaceted philospherphotographer Fabrizio Bellomo, sci-fi architect Liam Young, the city portraitist Vincenzo Castella, Mario Schifano and his amazing unreleased images from a trip in America, Zanele Muhole in Capetown described through the words of art patron Carole Bouwer. And then the extraordinary interview with Professor Marco de Michelis and the feminist statement of Eunice Olumide, transformed in a body-manipulated sculpture. But back in 1903, well over a century ago, Georg Simmel, the great German sociologist, wrote an essay analysing the impact of the metropolis upon humans that has lost none of its relevance today. #DON’T REPEAT YOURSELF “The deepest problems of modern life flow from the attempt of the individual to maintain the independence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society, against the weight of the historical heritage and the external culture and technique of life. This antagonism represents the most modern form of the conflict which primitive man must carry on with nature for his own bodily existence. The eighteenth century may have called for liberation from all the ties which grew up historically in politics, in religion, in morality and in economics in order to permit the original natural virtue of man, which is equal in everyone, to develop without inhibition; the nineteenth century may have sought to promote, in addition to man’s freedom, his individuality (which is connected with the division of labour) and his achievements which make him unique and indispensable but which at the same time make him so much the more dependent on the complementary activity of others; Nietzsche may have seen the relentless struggle of the individual as the prerequisite for his full development, while socialism found the same thing in the suppression of all competition – but in each of these the same fundamental motive was at work, namely the resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social-technological mechanism. To the extent that the metropolis creates these psycho-logical conditions – with every crossing of the street, with the tempo and multiplicity of economic, occupational and social life – it creates in the sensory foundations of mental life, and in the degree of awareness necessitated by our organization as creatures dependent on differences, a deep contrast with the slower, more habitual, more smoothly flowing rhythm of the sensorymental phase of small town and rural existence. That we follow the laws of our inner nature – and this is what freedom is – becomes perceptible and convincing to us and to others only when the expressions of this nature distinguish themselves from others; it is our irreplaceability by others which shows that our mode of existence is not imposed upon us from the outside. First of all there is the difficulty of giving one’s own personality a certain status within the framework of metropolitan life. Where quantitative increase of value and energy has reached its limits, one seizes on qualitative distinctions, so that, through taking advantage of the existing sensitivity to differences, the attention of the social world can, in some way, be won for oneself. This leads ultimately to the strangest eccentricities, to specifically metropolitan extravagances of self-distantiation, of caprice, of fastidiousness, the meaning of which is no longer to be found in the content of such activity itself but rather in its being a form of “being different” – of making oneself noticeable. For many types of persons these are still the only means of saving for oneself, through the attention gained from others, some sort of self-esteem and the sense of filling a position. The development of modern culture is characterized by the predominance of what one can call the objective spirit over the subjective. If we survey, for instance, the vast culture which during the last century has been embodied in things and in knowledge, in institutions and in comforts, and if we compare them with the cultural progress of the individual during the same period – at least in the upper classes – we would see a frightful difference in rate of growth between the two which represents, in many points, rather a regression of the culture of the individual with reference to spirituality, delicacy and idealism. It need only be pointed out that the metropolis is the proper arena for this type of culture which has outgrown every personal element. From one angle, life is made infinitely more easy in the sense that stimulations, interests, and the taking up of time and attention, present themselves from all sides and carry it in a stream which scarcely requires any individual efforts for its ongoing. But from another angle, life is composed more and more of these impersonal cultural elements and existing goods and values which seek to suppress peculiar personal interests and incomparabilities. No longer was it the “general human quality” in every individual but rather his qualitative uniqueness and irreplaceability that now became the criteria of his value. In the conflict and shifting interpretations of these two ways of defining the position of the individual within the totality is to be found the external as well as the internal history of our time. It is the function of the metropolis to make a place for the conflict and for the attempts at unification of both of these in the sense that its own peculiar conditions have been revealed to us as the occasion and the stimulus for the development of both.” CollectibleDRY 13 has three covers, your copy will be selected at random when ordered.
CollectibleDRY 12 – New Form
CollectibleDRY 12 – New Form
The Italian magazine for anyone who wants to look at fashion through an Italian point of view: COLLECTIBLE DRY. 'If you have everyting under control, you're not moving fast enough', says Mario Andretti on the cover of the new COLLECTIBLE DRY. Issue No. 12 is themed NEW FORM. Be in form, the magazine says, for a new awareness - or how to change the world. IN THIS ISSUE: Alexina Graham; JEFF KOONS; Guido van der Werve; SAM WAY; GARY QUINN; GIGI RIVA; Jonathan Daniel Pryce; EMMA BRESCHI; Evan Mock; and many others. CollectibleDRY 12 has two covers, your copy will be selected at random when ordered.
CollectibleDRY 11 – People Are Icons
CollectibleDRY 11 – People Are Icons
The Italian magazine for anyone who wants to look at fashion through an Italian point of view: COLLECTIBLE DRY. 'Everything is valid, and so is the opposite of everything', says COLLECTIBLE DRY in its 11th issue. 'And what about antibodies? They can only be created by a new critical ability. By a new authenticity; by real people.' IN THIS ISSUE: Richard Prince; Bruce Labruce; Angela Missoni; MARCUS COOPER; PIERO PIAZZI; KARL LAGERFELD; Lotta Kaijarvi; BURBERRY; MattandSarah and many others. CollectibleDRY 11 has two covers, your copy will be selected at random when ordered.
CollectibleDRY 10 – Vanitas
CollectibleDRY 10 – Vanitas | With two covers: Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Leomie Anderson
CollectibleDRY 10 – Vanitas | Never mind the Devil and the darkest forces that condition our inner choices, today we live in a world that is both threatening and insecure. Yet, as far as our historical memory can recall, humanity has come through worse moments of horror, moral void, and abjection shared by, or thrust upon, the majority of peoples. Industrial and social revolutions and then technology, which makes everything easier and accessible, have changed production relationships, raising the level of general wellbeing but leaving behind a large part of the world that is still suffering, despite the vast means at the disposal of the few. But everything has never revolved around the Self as it does at present. The goal of many is to realize themselves and their personal ambitions, and to put themselves in the spotlight – especially if they are without qualities – sometimes to the point of becoming a profession. The artist Andy Warhol is quoted as saying “In the future, everyone will be world- famous for 15 minutes” – a phrase so symbolic that it was engraved on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1970. In today’s society, taking the fast lane to fame appears to be a must for everyone. Andy’s prophetic statement has virtually become an imperative. * Social networks, in particular, have successfully appealed to the weaknesses of young and old alike, enveloping them in a world that celebrates the cult of the “beautiful, rich and famous” and “everything now”, and projecting them into a future where standing out is the only thing that counts. But, perhaps, in the end all that will remain of those fleeting 15 minutes of fame is a handful of dust… Individualism is the new religion, the opium of peoples. It is easy to go beyond the bounds of the acceptable when it comes to vanity. In mythology, Narcissus becomes slave to his beauty, which first makes the person who loves him suffer and later is the cause of his death. Narcissus is not only punished by the gods for his vanity, but above all because he is condemned to love only himself and his own beauty. His self-referentiality is his condemnation. This issue explores the different aspects of the desire to stand out, a powerful theme and potential carrier of bad attitudes that will infect the next generations. It can be done playfully, by choosing an eye- catching dress and makeup that makes you look special, or through self-analysis, as in the works of artists past and present. For example, Lucy McRae, world-renowned Australian sci-fi artist, filmmaker and inventor, who turns her body into an innovative laboratory. Her work speculates on the future of human existence by exploring the limits of the body, beauty, biotechnology and the self. Lucy uses art as a mechanism to signal and provoke our ideologies and ethics about who we are and where we are headed. We, on the other hand, simply reflect on the symbolic aspects of looking at yourself in the mirror, of a hidden or luxurious beauty that is revealed beneath the reflecting surface through the contrast between new and old: these aspects are examined by a philosopher and a historian of ancient art. The auctioning by Sotheby’s of the contents of the houses that belonged to Pierre Bergé, the on-and-off lover of Yves Saint Laurent and co-founder of the iconic designer’s fashion empire, reveals the dedication of a “passionate” collector, the kind that are no more. The extraordinary quality and rarity of the pieces in his collection give it a remarkable finesse. From Vanitas, 1955, by Buffet, dedicated and presented as a personal gift to Bergé and then hidden so as not to hurt Saint Laurent’s feelings, to the accumulation of memento mori from Yves’ death onwards. They represent reflections on human affairs, on transience and, perhaps, on a success that was difficult to repeat. Who more than an actor represents going beyond yourself? Oliver Jackson-Cohen, son of the famous fashion designer Betty Jackson, says that acting is a “daunting path and being an actor is a rollercoaster of emotions”. Billy Howle devotes a lot of time to photography, and confesses: “I’m starting to question that myself, and my interest lies much more in the desire to help other people”. Stars of films and popular Netflix series, they are not afraid to reveal their weaknesses, despite their good looks and celebrity. We also visit Sicily and Fausto Puglisi, who retraces his story and rediscovers his roots in women who are strong and proud of it, and in the slow but intense crafting of well- made things by artisans of savoir faire. Dressing heedless of gender is also an act of vanity: If I know a suit looks good on a guy, and I’m a woman, why can’t I dress that way too? This choice is not new, but why can’t it become the rule now… and vice versa? Before a concert Emma Ruth Rundle gave in London, we had an in-depth conversation with her about the open and personal nature of her songwriting, and how her visual art entwines with her musical output. What could be more vain than the colour pink? Especially when it is like the tentacles of a jellyfish… One of the seven deadly sins, pride can be placed on a level with vanity, while one of the ten commandments is “Love thy neighbour as thyself”. So loving means not letting yourself go, but respecting yourself and knowing your own worth. It is using yourself as a reference to recognize what is different about the Other and to appreciate it. Even if, for vanity’s sake, we are prepared to give up our freedom and we want to be tagged, linked and shared, and to share all our personal moments. This means that we don’t know where to draw the line and we don’t even recognize the limit of offence: what is acceptable to us, must also be liked by others. And lately we have witnessed some of the most grotesque and unjustifiable exaggerations. Precisely in the name of vanity and self-promotion. * One of the most recent adaptations of Warhol’s maxim is attributed to the American philosopher David Weinberger, and certainly renders the abnormal abuse of blogging and social networking: “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 people”, which is also cited as “On the internet, everyone will be famous for 15 people”. But how about: In the future everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes? Note that the two covers of issue 10 will be selected at random when ordered.
CollectibleDRY 9 – Classical/ Heretical
CollectibleDRY 9 – Classical/Heretical | On the cover Katrin Thormann wears an embroidered silk dress by FENDI
CollectibleDRY 9 – Classical/Heretical | In this day and age, talking about the classical carries a certain level of responsibility. Whether we like it or not, the classical often wins out over the new. Why? Because it’s reassuring. It provides the guarantee of what’s already been experienced, already inhabited. It boasts the shared values of authority and continuity. And it embodies the beautiful, as the concept is generally understood. Yet the classical is also cumbersome. It’s heavy precisely due to the values that characterize it. So what can be considered classical today? Given that it is not a rigid category, it can be accommodated, sometimes quite easily. What was avant-garde or extremist until the day before can become classical. And consequently, that which is truly classical can appear revolutionary. In a word: heretical. The heresy of the classical is exactly what today, even though it is an actual category, escapes our grasp. Therefore what could be better than to seek the advice one of the world’s greatest experts on the classical? The philologist, historian and essayist Luciano Canfora, questioned by artists, has gifted us his own extraordinary point of view. Painter and sculptor Giulio Paolini, a master of the conceptual avant-garde, has repeatedly emphasized his intimate relationship with art history. Paolini’s poetics are rife with literary references and mythological mentions: a self-reflexive mediation on the dimension of art, on its timeless “classicalness” and perspective devoid of vanishing points. As a young photographer, Lisetta Carmi had the courage to address the human condition in its desperate need for affirmation. Her black and white portraits of transvestites in Genoa have become classical within a volume that is now almost impossible to find, and in this issue she shares with us shots that are even more cruelly realistic and lyrical, in colors washed out by time. Robert Mapplethorpe, the beauty of counterculture and Thomas Ruff, the beauty of the human face. Kensuke Koike, a voyage into memory revisited through gestures that appear casual, but are in reality carefully measured and bring to light the hidden meanings in the vintage images Koike crops and recomposes. Jan Fabre, a champion of total art, shares his vision of a constant, transgressive comparison between classical and contemporary. Matteo Guarnaccia, agit-prop and historian of counterculture, has given us delicious maxims through his artwork… How simple and rewarding it was to transgress, back when there were rules to be broken! Human nature cannot do without harmony, the perfect equilibrium of a golden mean that pervades every aspect of our lives. In the world of fashion Dapper Dan has returned, reedited like a classic in a unisex collection that has already developed a cult following. Black is always a certainty, today acceptable both day and night, and romantic, some like it dark. The space New Age is celebrated with silvery, glittery vestments. Granny style? It’s never been more desirable than it is today. From Tokyo, where the most extreme fashions are born and rise, a new restoration has arrived: young people dressed in Scottish college outfits, couture reds, impeccable whites… So, long live the classical. And if we must draw inspiration from the great thinkers of the past, Luciano Canfora tells us that “Gli antichi ci riguardano” (The ancients are still relevant today), the title of his latest book. This because they are dramatic and non-consolatory, except in the holographic vision they were given once upon a time. One example: all of ancient society was based on the relationship freedom-enslavement. Today, in an extraordinary manner, this phenomenon appears on the world scale in the most diverse of forms. It has come roaring back in even the wealthiest Western societies, while in the ex-colonial world, it never left. Seneca’s letters addressing this issue have an incredibly powerful contemporary value. They help us understand how this philosopher approached the problem of the impossibility of demonstrating the difference between freedom and slavery. And the conflict between ethics and politics that is woven throughout the entire history of thought, from Socrates to the present day: can a politician pursuing lofty goals commit actions that are, when taken alone, correctly considered immoral? Modern thought, and classical thought as well, struggles with the concept, or idea, of moral responsisbility. But there is not now, and perhaps never was, any one quick, simple answer. Photography Lina Tesch. Fashion Sayuri Bloom. Make Up and Hair Sigi Kumpfmuller @ Kult Artists Hamburg. Model Katrin Thormann @ Women Management Milan. Casting Ma ia Marazzi @ CM Casting.
CollectibleDRY 8 – Imagination in Power
CollectibleDRY 8 – Imagination in Power | On the cover Emma Laird wearing GUCCI, photographed by Domen/Van de Velde
CollectibleDRY 8 – Imagination in Power | Once upon a time things were much simpler. I stood here, you stood there, something else stood in the middle, but it was always graspable, contextualized, worthy of opinion. I stood against the war, against hunger, against imperialism, against injustice, against dictators, false prophets, ideologies, religions, conformism. I fought for workers’ rights, to make my body my own, and I’m in charge of it, democracy, freedom of expression… There, that last one: having the freedom to express oneself. Thinking identified strong issues, created slogans (statements?), and then we took to the streets to prove we were alive, because we had ideas. We felt strong, because we were united. Strong, because through imagination we rose to power and ultimately empowered imagination in turn. The year was 1968 and the entire world was swelling with hope, with a desire to change. People wanted radical change; they wanted to overturn all the certainties that had created a foundation for the bourgeoisie before them. The massive economic growth that followed on the heels of World War Two and the subsequent peace (at least in the West) created certainty. Young people, both bourgeoisie and blue collar, longed for something more. Work and education were no longer enough. People wanted to be free, to fight for rights, even those of the weakest among us, and along with them affirm their own individuality, their own intrinsic value. Line up There are grand people, cultural legends and lights in the dark shadows of our contemporary world. They have tried to change the world, and still accompany us today, attempting to shine a light on our new world, a place they perhaps intuited and attempted to avert; an individualistic, amoral, spoiled world. A world of appearances and non-being, satiated by the superficiality of social media connections. In this issue Guido Toraldo di Francia, Ugo La Pietra and Aubrey Powell share their powerful thinking with us, and the ways in which it influenced the imaginations of more than one generation. There are grand female artists, some of whom we lost all too soon, like Sophie Podolsky and Ketty La Rocca, who investigated the relationship between visual and verbal languages, especially in connection with the female condition, turning their investigations into political discourse. Like Luce Irigaray, a French linguist, psychoanalyst, and feminist philosopher who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women, and in this issue has inspired pages created by a young team of photographers and designers. And contemporary artists like the legendary Marlene Dumas, whose figurative works have earned her a place among the most influential painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. With her oeuvre of haunting portraiture, she consistently explores themes of sexuality, political oppression, identity and feminism. Her work is informed by her childhood experiences growing up under Apartheid, and addresses social struggles of oppressed people around the world. Or Mika Rottenberg, whose elaborate visual narratives draw on film, architectural installation and sculpture to question labor and globalization, economy and the production of value, as well as the ways our own affective relationships are increasingly monetized. Weaving documentary elements with fiction into complex allegories for the human condition, she jumps into the seduction, magic, and desperation of our hyper-capitalist reality. Then there’s the very young Sofia Ginevra Giannì (SAGG Napoli), who uses narration as a tool to examine a complex socio-political knot, that of the South, its historical traces and geo-political entanglements. Placing her body within a specific time and context, she reflects on notions of productivity, self-control and achievement; the context is Naples, her birthplace. Sexy attitudes Through fashion we can hunt just how many traces of our history and the power of our imaginations can be found in contemporary life: the memories of a bunch of dreamers from the 1960s; or the sexy attitudes of the groupies who crowded concerts and artists’ factories within the pop and underground scenes. Luxurious Parisian haute couture counterbalances design-outfits that detail the slavery of work and money. Carlo Mollino’s legacy pays homage to real women, so liberal and carefree that they seem like innocent creatures, and punk – which isn’t dead, but has moved out of counterculture to become a source of inspiration for contemporary fashion. Powerful tomorrow Palermo has been elected Capital of Culture, opening up to art and putting all its contradictory beauty on display. A voyage into psychedelics shows us how the controlled use of hallucinogens can become (and was for some of our planet’s great minds) a way to open up to the world, amplifying the senses and emotions, distorting our perception of reality. To what extent did this influence artistic and creative performances? No one knows, despite the fact that illustrious researchers convinced themselves that LSD might have additional applications beyond clinical studies. Ultimately it came to represent a means for spiritual growth and exploration, thanks to its remarkable entheogenic properties, thereby inserting itself into the alternative cultural movements of the 1960s and rapidly becoming a symbol of hippie culture. Then again, in recent years a trend has developed, especially in Silicon Valley, of using “micro-doses” of LSD, not to obtain any psychedelic effects, but to improve problem-solving capacities, creativity, a sense of well being and ultimately some cognitive processes. So if this reality rings true, then everything that is counterculture today will become a consumer good and tool for the powerful tomorrow, shedding its imaginative and revolutionary charge. Maybe it’s time to restore meaning to the words of the preeminent philosopher, political activist and major intellectual influencer on the New Left and student movements of the 1960s, Herbert Marcuse: Thought that accepts reality as given is no thought at all. One-Dimensional Man, 1964. Cover picture by Domen/Van de Velde, starring Emma Laird on the cover.
CollectibleDRY 7 – Alessandra Mastronardi
CollectibleDRY – Escape to be | On the cover Italian actress Alessandra Mastronardi
CollectibleDRY 7 – Escape to be | Escaping doesn’t always mean going away, forgetting. It can be a search for a new dimension. It can be a beginning, or experimenting a different self. It can mean breaking free of a cocoon to finally become that which you’ve always been. Forget or forge everything? This is the essence of escape. Sometimes we wake with a desire to be someone else, different and elsewhere. We desire a new hypothesis for the future. In CollectibleDRY 7, you’ll explore extraordinary stories by people who have turned escapes into strength and transformation. Vlatka Horvat cuts out references to the infinite that dissolve barriers and erase memories; John Waters renders void the confines between tradition and destruction of tradition; Kensuke Koike overturns perceptions of the past… Then there’s Simon Denny, a fan artist who has created a flag for the state of Liberland, born through the use of blockchain technologies and bitcoins. Indian photographer Sujatro Ghosh uses provocative shots to denounce the female condition in his country, where women are worth less than cows. Can the same be said of other cultures too? Recognition of women’s rights and their role in contemporary society, especially in places we think of as “evolved,” remains ambiguous and surprisingly critical. Already midway through the past century, major female artists denounced subordinate conditions and commodification of the female body, including all the problems connected with recognizing one’s own identity. Adrian Piper, a famous feminist artist who abandoned the US for Berlin, shares her archive with us. The great Carolee Schneemann, who won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2017 Venice Biennale, gives an extraordinary interview detailing her militant artwork, which has always put the female body front and center in order to free it from rhetorical and patriarchal conditioning. Niki de Saint Phalle is drawn between the savage side of her female character and her bourgeois family upbringing. What more in CollectibleDRY 7? - There is no “genre” issue if society is fluid and that which surrounds the sexes dissipates into a mutating body. Accepting one’s own corpus is beautiful, if it is worth. That’s the important thing: never lose sight of value. Never sell yourself out. Then body and soul can remain united, seeking perfection even when it lies outside the pre-established, uniform or usual. You’re a man, you’re a woman; genre doesn’t matter. What’s important is knowing how to make your own choice. We can switch men’s and women’s clothing to become that which we desire in a given moment. Wearing a mask works too (check out the amazing piece by Charles Fréger, a photographer-anthropologist who wants to restore – through portraiture – identities and dignity to the protagonists of his works). Then you’ll enjoy a search for memory in a place that is an ancient home that has nothing to do with spirits, yet mirrors the soul of generations. Or explore landscapes shot by Matteo Procacci, immersed in an imaginary light, altering perceptions by inventing novel things. For Alessandra Mastronardi, a young Italian actress making a name for herself in the world, escape can be the choice to try new challenges and cultures, but also to return home, back to her familiar roots. She is featuring one of the covers of CollectibleDRY 7. The famous photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri generously opens his foundation to young people, revealing beauty through iconic images, exotic countries, divine creatures, interwoven with history. The body doesn’t scare us anymore, even though we know that it continues to render us terribly mortal. Humans have tried to free themselves, remaining somehow alive, from their mortal remains (Their Mortal Remains is the title of V&A’s Pink Floyd Exhibition and book). The answer provided by Aldous Huxley and other theoreticians of escapism is another story. We’ll address that in upcoming issues, but let’s end here with a line that synthetizes their thinking: I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
CollectibleDRY 7 – David Koma
CollectibleDRY – Escape to be | On the cover model Xu Meen wearing bodysuit David Koma
CollectibleDRY 7 – Escape to be | Escaping doesn’t always mean going away, forgetting. It can be a search for a new dimension. It can be a beginning, or experimenting a different self. It can mean breaking free of a cocoon to finally become that which you’ve always been. Forget or forge everything? This is the essence of escape. Sometimes we wake with a desire to be someone else, different and elsewhere. We desire a new hypothesis for the future. In CollectibleDRY 7, you’ll explore extraordinary stories by people who have turned escapes into strength and transformation. Vlatka Horvat cuts out references to the infinite that dissolve barriers and erase memories; John Waters renders void the confines between tradition and destruction of tradition; Kensuke Koike overturns perceptions of the past… Then there’s Simon Denny, a fan artist who has created a flag for the state of Liberland, born through the use of blockchain technologies and bitcoins. Indian photographer Sujatro Ghosh uses provocative shots to denounce the female condition in his country, where women are worth less than cows. Can the same be said of other cultures too? Recognition of women’s rights and their role in contemporary society, especially in places we think of as “evolved,” remains ambiguous and surprisingly critical. Already midway through the past century, major female artists denounced subordinate conditions and commodification of the female body, including all the problems connected with recognizing one’s own identity. Adrian Piper, a famous feminist artist who abandoned the US for Berlin, shares her archive with us. The great Carolee Schneemann, who won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2017 Venice Biennale, gives an extraordinary interview detailing her militant artwork, which has always put the female body front and center in order to free it from rhetorical and patriarchal conditioning. Niki de Saint Phalle is drawn between the savage side of her female character and her bourgeois family upbringing. What more in CollectibleDRY 7? - There is no “genre” issue if society is fluid and that which surrounds the sexes dissipates into a mutating body. Accepting one’s own corpus is beautiful, if it is worth. That’s the important thing: never lose sight of value. Never sell yourself out. Then body and soul can remain united, seeking perfection even when it lies outside the pre-established, uniform or usual. You’re a man, you’re a woman; genre doesn’t matter. What’s important is knowing how to make your own choice. We can switch men’s and women’s clothing to become that which we desire in a given moment. Wearing a mask works too (check out the amazing piece by Charles Fréger, a photographer-anthropologist who wants to restore – through portraiture – identities and dignity to the protagonists of his works). Then you’ll enjoy a search for memory in a place that is an ancient home that has nothing to do with spirits, yet mirrors the soul of generations. Or explore landscapes shot by Matteo Procacci, immersed in an imaginary light, altering perceptions by inventing novel things. For Alessandra Mastronardi, a young Italian actress making a name for herself in the world, escape can be the choice to try new challenges and cultures, but also to return home, back to her familiar roots. She is featuring one of the covers of CollectibleDRY 7. The famous photographer Gian Paolo Barbieri generously opens his foundation to young people, revealing beauty through iconic images, exotic countries, divine creatures, interwoven with history. The body doesn’t scare us anymore, even though we know that it continues to render us terribly mortal. Humans have tried to free themselves, remaining somehow alive, from their mortal remains (Their Mortal Remains is the title of V&A’s Pink Floyd Exhibition and book). The answer provided by Aldous Huxley and other theoreticians of escapism is another story. We’ll address that in upcoming issues, but let’s end here with a line that synthetizes their thinking: I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
CollectibleDRY 6 – (R)evolution
CollectibleDRY 6 – (R)evolution | Cover picture by Valentina De' Mathà
CollectibleDRY 6 – (R)evolution | Which revolution? Why revolution? Are there more revolution to come? Whether it’s an irrevocable movement or a cyclical recovery of previous conditions, revolution – courageously seized or ineluctably suffered – are not unlike the movement of celestial bodies: they mark a new starting point; here a new year, there a new esprit du temps. As historical phenomenon, a revolution can be a quick process or a lengthy affair, and is the realization of radical change, inspired by ideological motivations, effecting profound transformation of a broad range of social, economic and political structures. They are often born of acts of faith or love, and as such are associated ( by reaction ) with violence, repression and restoration. Featuring among others in CollectibleDRY 6: Tom Moran, Lola Chatterton, Alessandro Calabrese, Roberto Orlandi, Michela Guasco, Guillaume Reynaud, Nadya Khamneipur, Lorenzo Marcucci. Cover picture by Valentina De’ Mathà, starring Bronte Coates styled by Leonardo Persico.
CollectibleDRY 5 – Nomadic Roaming
CollectibleDRY 5 – Nomadic Roaming. An Artificial Editorial on Nomadic Experience
CollectibleDRY 5 – In an issue that tries to explore the many facets of nomadism, from roaming thoughts to international wars and the melting pots of culture, genres and sexual experience, we felt our readers might appreciate a little temporal nomadism too. So we reached back into our future archives, curious to explore a slice of the tomorrow mankind is building today through developments in virtual, augmented and artificial realities. And while our editorial is fiction, the questions it addresses will soon be adding complicated twists to our shared human reality. Cover picture by Sandrine Dulermo & Michael Labica, starring Hirschy styled by Sayuri Bloom
CollectibleDRY 3 – Love Actually
CollectibleDRY 3 - Love Actually. Do we need love? There’s a need for love (God knows) - Spring/Summer issue 2017
CollectibleDRY 3 - Love. What word has been more oft-abused? Ever since man was born, created by the promise of pure love, in harmony with his surrounding nature. And who, for love, would transgress, lose his or her purity… Love antagonists? Hate. Indifference. Fear. Egoism… They can all coexist. They’re the same faces of a single coin. As an extremely beautiful poem by Catullo, entitled Odi et Amo*, acts of love often unknowingly, arbitrarily splash over into acts of hatred. Great gestures of love can lead to actions with exactly the opposite effect. If perfection doesn’t exist, then better retreat to small gestures of daily import. Cultivating a garden in a city in which to experiment a new model of society, offering free meals packaged with art, oating on limpid waters on a sustainable vessel… Or go off the grid in order to compose love messages on an old typewriter. Repeat “Love Hope Soul,” a mantra that vibrates with words carved in time. Love is also looking, within the hardest, most humble jobs, for protection derived of devotion, not fear. Testifying that in Los Angeles, on America’s legendary West Coast, fty years after the Summer of Love, the ower revolution, and through technological revolution, there’s a new desire to be people and at the same time a tendency toward a truer intimacy, one free of fashions, trends and restrictions. Thus the pansexual, genderfuck generation was born, whose members reject the binary categories of gender: neither male nor female. A designer-poet writes his poetry with clothing, and paints his dreams and desires before sharing them along with his dearest possessions: the fairy tale he tells us is like touching the sky with one nger. But man also fears for his survival, and the respect (love) for that which surrounds him has becoming an impelling need. We can’t let eternal glaciers melt. Lips that offer themselves up like bonbons for a kiss. Passion painted red, brides who paint precious masks on their faces through a ritual designed to honor their future husbands. A love getaway for two famous lovers who want to conceal themselves from the world. An impossible love story between an enchanted cat and the man who has given her his heart. Accumulations of objects, fetishes revealing secret passions; the innocent exhibition of a beauty that doesn’t fear nudity. Elective af nities between him and her, forms become broad, welcoming the embrace. A young actor sets off millions of likes among his Chinese fans, donning traditional clothing onscreen. And in Africa, art is once again the means through which to conduct a new redemption, as an important protagonist of this movement recounts in this issue. But in the end, does it still make sense to talk of love? Enough with sacri ce, we want the impossible! We want a loving world, one that leaves us be and lets us be ourselves. Not easy, right? Make love, not war. - Read about it in CollectibleDRY 3. Cover picture by Jeff Bark, starring Staz Lindes styled by Simon Robins.
CollectibleDRY 2
CollectibleDRY 2 - Winter Issue 2016/2017
CollectibleDRY 2 is featuring: JEFF BARK STUART DAVIS Toni Thorimbert PATTY WILSON SIR PAUL SMITH HANS HOOP DE BEECK MARCO DE VINCENZO CANNABIS AI WEIWEI ROGER BALLEN NHU XUAN HUA GILBERT & GEORGE
CollectibleDRY 1
The wait is over: the premier issue of CollectibleDRY is finally out. Get it and read about Christian Bale, The Alkaline Diet, The Male Nude, and much more.
And enjoy the beautiful images created for fashion, art and design stories.
CollectibleDRY – subscription
CollectibleDRY is the Italian magazine for international readers who want to look at the world through an Italian point of view: made of beauty, style, culture.
CollectibleDRY means connecting modernity with tradition, making future interacting with memory. In software engineering, “Don’t repeat Yourself” (DrY) also known as “single source of Truth”, is a principle of software design and development, aimed at reducing any logical repetition and redundancy. "Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system".* Today we live in an e-deology constantly connected to the infosphere, where information is handled automatically. CollectibleDRY wants to be the platform of a point of view not endorsed, where the meanings prevail on an overdose of the repeatable. How? Awakening the imagination, with information that reduces uncertainty. Inspiration is the effort which focusses on everything, even the ability to love. And love is to imagine the impossible. No prejudices, no boundaries, no technical divide, regardless of gender or sex. Restoring value to the meanings, we will have more freedom. * Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas in their book "The Pragmatic Programmer", 1999 c.
Eye Magazine 99
Eye Magazine 99
Eye Magazine 99: 'Eye has always been both a cultural journal and a business-to-business magazine. Though we value work that is both beautiful and effective, the ecology of graphic design rests on a transactional network – from client, to studio, to final output – that is underpinned by friendly relationships with ‘suppliers’ such as photographers, illustrators, printers, developers, repro houses, paper companies and type foundries. Though it is a cliché to say that the client-designer relationship is what distinguishes design from art, we know that the art world, which benefits immensely from studios such as Apfel and Mues Design, can be driven by financial wizardry and whims as mysterious as the business of fashion. In ‘Normcore inferno’, Elizabeth Glickfeld investigates what she calls the strange ‘double speak’ of the new wave of logo design for luxury brands. Gottschalk+Ash’s Sascha Lötscher believes that for business to take design seriously, designers should do their best work for commerce, not culture. But he decries the confrontational format of ‘the pitch’, in which a potential client says: ‘impress me.’ Happily, much of the work in this issue, cultural or commercial, stems from friendly partnerships – with clients and consumers – that develop slowly over time. John Ridpath’s article about ethics in the digital age is a timely reminder that designers have responsibilities that go far beyond what we regard as effective or ‘good’ design.' John L. Walters, editor of Eye
Eye Magazine 98 – Independence and Originality
Eye Magazine 98 | Independence and Originality
Eye Magazine 98: 'When you visit St Bride Printing Library in London, or the living archive that is Rainer Gerstenberg’s foundry in Darmstadt, you cannot help but marvel at the size, the weight, the sheer materiality and engineered precision of typecasting. By comparison, the 21st-century font is small and downloaded in a trice, an ethereal construction of code. Yet examine a modern type family and you see creations and revelations that would have bamboozled the most sophisticated eighteenth-century punchcutter. Modest text families are packed with characters. So-called superfamilies incorporate a vast range of weights, styles, optical sizes, languages and miscellaneous glyphs. The contemporary typeface is a labyrinth, a cabinet of wonders that can transport its users across cultures and languages and aesthetic dimensions. Though the designers of the fonts shown in the extensive ‘Type now’ section span the globe, our other stories focus on Europe. We investigate the legacies of Swiss designers Thérèse Moll and Ernst Keller and, in the Netherlands, the explorations of Hansje van Halem and Bram De Does, creator of the sublime Trinité and Lexicon. We look at Paul Barnes’s excavation of the St Bride ‘treasure trove’, and the artefacts, photographed by John Bodkin and Philip Sayer, that inspired Commercial Classics. There were many moments during the making of Eye 98 when we thought about the late Gerard Unger, whose Theory of Type Design is reviewed by Peter Bilak. In the world of type and typography, Unger’s benign influence remains essential.' John L. Walters, editor of Eye
Slanted 33 – Prague
Slanted 33 - Prague
Slanted 33 - Prague: In August 2018, the Slanted editors and photographer Dirk Gebhardt took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Prague. They had a number of good reasons to visit Prague: They wanted to meet some good friends and great designer—but also wanted to immerse themselves in history and culture, see Josef Koudelka’s documentation of the Velvet Revolution, experience the disturbing world of Franz Kafka, enjoy the musical elegance of Dvorak and save their souls by inhaling the aura of UMRPUM, Prague’s Academy of Art, Architecture, and Design.
Far away from overtourism at Old Town Square, Charles Bridge, or Prague Castle, Slanted met some of the most amazing designers who know where they’re from and their roots give them a clear vision of where they want to go. They are the ones shaping the new Prague. You can find their brilliant works in the new issue, and a deeper look at their opinions and views through video interviews that can be watched online on our video platform for free: slanted.de/prague. Illustrations, photography, interviews, essays, and a huge appendix with many useful tips and the best Czech typefaces complement the issue thematically. Slanted 33 comes with contributions by 20YY Designers, Patrik Antczak, Anymade Studio, Artishock, Michal Ba?ák, Peter Bankov, Filip Blažek, Braasi Industry, Briefcase Type Foundry, Tomáš Brousil, Monika ?ejková, ?ezeta motors, Anežka Hrubá Ciglerová, Design Herynek, Displaay, Petra Do?ekalová, Kristina Fišerová, Fontstore, Karel Haloun, Heavyweight Digital Type Foundry, Martin Hrdina, Jitka Jane?ková, Kolektiv Studio, Jan Šrámek Kolouch, Linda Kudrnowská, Laborato?, Františka Lachmanová, Zuzana Lednická, LINOSTOCK, Ian Lynam, Dermot Mac Cormack, Matýaš Machat, Man—Machine Type, Master & Master, Simon Matejka, Monsters, Veronika Rút Nováková, Oficina, OKOLO, PageFive, Parallel Practice, PBG, Pavla Pauknerová, Tomáš Pospiszyl, ReDesign, Rosetta Type Foundry, Side2, Radek Sidun, Adam Št?ch, Storm Type Foundry, Studio adela&pauline, Studio Marvil, Studio Najbrt, Studio Novák & Balihar, Studio Petrohrad, Suitcase Type Foundry, Superior Type, superlative.works, Marta Sylvestrová, taketaketake, Tomski&Polanski, TypeTogether, uathentic, Rostislav Van?k, and _ZVUK_.Volume: 256 pages Format: 16 × 24 cm
Lodestars Special – England Issue
Lodestars Special - England Issue
Lodestars Special | England ... it is sylvan, unpredictable, sublime, originative and contradictory - a land of eccentricity and ingenuity, a mix of worlds, practices and lifestyles all enriched and enlivened by an enthrallingly complex past. Travel here and discover more than you thought possible - and that defining Englishness is a daunting task indeed. Lodestars Special - The England Issue is a magazine about forests, crags and drystone walls; about culinary daring, crumbling ruins and journeys into the wild. It is an ode to literary histories and a smuggling past, coastal towns and cultural capitals. Recalling long forgotten giants and lingering lore, this is our homage to England and the verve that makes it eternal. You can order the England Issue at Bruil & van de Staaij as a Single Product. This issue is not included with a Subscription to Lodestars Anthology.Lodestar: A star used to guide seafaring travellers, most typically Polaris, the North Star. Something that acts as a model or inspiration.
