march, 2017

In 1949, the competition »Die besten Plakate des Jahres« (The Best Posters of the Year) took place for the first time in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany. Designers could enter poster designs from the past year, a jury of experts awarded prizes for the best works. From 1966 onwards, there was such an annual competition in the GDR too. Many of the commended works from that time are today amongst the canon of German and international design history. The book tells the eventful history of the com­peti­tions and their changing shape over the decades. The picture section shows over 250 posters from 1949 to 2000 from a total of almost 4,000 award-winning works. An all-German poster history, which visualizes lasting changes as well as transient design trends and shows many of the best German posters, including works by Helmut Brade, cyan, Michael Engelmann, Frieder Grindler, Erhard Grüttner, Rudolf Grüttner, Hans Hillmann, Günther Kieser, Uwe Loesch, Holger Matthies, Pierre Mendell, Rolf Felix Müller, Volker Pfüller, Ott+Stein, Gunter Rambow and many others.

Any Part, Any Form is a follow-up to London-based graphic designer Radim Peško’s Informal Meetings (2010), a collection of photographs made during travels and wanderings to different places. This volume brings back found compositions and situations where seemingly unremarkable encounters between space, architecture and water suggest their own stories.

We believe that a man’s style is something that derives from his own personality, not from ephemeral “trends”. We enjoy opinionated men. Men with a sense of purpose and a soul. Smart, intelligent and creative; men with ideas and ideology. Men who are their own men, who don’t fit others’ standards. Misfits? Yes. We don’t believe in negativity. We believe in revolution.

KUNSTforum is the only Nordic magazine that covers comtemporary, modern and historical art and visual culture. In the print edition we publish selected articles in English, here we publish English articles from the magazine and some articles written solely for this website.

The platform is a limited edition bi-annual magazine, a portrayal of the beautiful everyday, lying right under noses that were so busy searching they forgot to notice. Style is everywhere; it is an act or gesture, an accent or slur or slang, the latest dog, the smoker’s cigarette, short hair is the new long hair; if you couldn’t care you still care. It is important to describe and distill the time we live in whilst always pushing things forward.

/ The idea to establish a magazine about painting, made predominately by painters, became concrete in 2003 during one of our many discussions – arguments about our own work and other painters that interested us. / We, along with most of our friends, have a long history of such discussions (usually in the pub) and built on fairly regular studio visits. These discussions are vital to us and we wondered if there might be a demand for a magazine that could act as a forum for the ideas and views of painters. / Partly because art criticism is not a science and because we believe good painting is not driven by ideological principles, Turps Banana does not carry a singular position or attitude about painting, but is as open as possible, in order to allow dialogues to develop. / What excites us most is that uniquely, the contributors are not critics or professional art writers, but practitioners whose contributions will hopefully illuminate their own practice as they reflect on their contemporaries and their interest in the history of painting. / We would like to thank all our contributors and readers for their support in helping to make the magazine a success.

Quinn Latimer is a poet, critic, and editor based in Basel and Athens. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Publications for documenta 14.

Anfang der 1990er Jahre schockt Jeff Koons die Öffentlichkeit, indem er den italienischen Pornostar Cicciolina heiratet, sich in eindeutigen pornografischen Posen abbilden lässt und massenmedial inszeniert. Mit diesem Ereignis hob Koons die Frage nach Kunst und Leben auf ein neues Niveau. Die digitalen Techniken, deren Entwicklung damals begonnen hat, erweitern heute zum Beispiel über Facebook und Instagram die Verbreitungs möglichkeiten der Selbstinszenierung. Damit stellt sich die Frage, welche Funktionen Bilder in der Öffentlichkeit haben und wie Sie unseren Alltag neu bestimmen. Welche Erwartungen werden in diesem Kontext heute an den Künstler heran getragen? Welche Kongruenzen oder Differenzen entstehen zwischen der Person und dem öffentlichen Bild? Der Band Public Image beschäftigt sich mit den Erwartungen, Enttäuschungen und Potentialen zwischen privatem und öffentlichem Bild und zeigt neue Perspektiven der Verbindung von Kunst und Leben in der heutigen mediendominierten Zeit auf. Gleichzeitig wird in verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Kontexten der Umgang mit Bildern in der Öffentlichkeit thematisiert und dargestellt, welche Funktion die Medien dabei einnehmen.

Legendary feminist artist Lynda Benglis welcomes Marfa Journal in her Santa Fe studio where she is currently busy producing paper genitalia from scratch. From dancehall to the Great Hall of the Met with Kranium. UK born, NYC bred designer Andre Walker discusses American polemics – money and race. Bond girl Lea Seydoux discusses personal polemics – fertility and poor fashion choices. Not a single issue goes without MARFART: Olympia Scarry and Ken Okiishi take care of it this time. In fact, HOME IS WHERE YOUR ART IS: rapper Rejjie Snow shows off his bachelor pad while photographer Collier Schorr shares her insight into being a good houseguest; and more. Please note: Covers will be sent out randomly.

Each cover of i-D magazine gives you a knowing wink that hints at the wonder inside. Cutting-edge and influential, this publication is well known for its superb layout and first class photography. From the UK, this manual of style was one of the first to break the barrier between art and fashion photography.

Dazed (formerly Dazed & Confused) has evolved from a London street scene magazine into an internationally-recognised title that continues to identify and create leading-edge cultural trends through its challenging and often controversial editorial, design and visual identity. With its world-exclusive interviews, groundbreaking fashion editorial, peerless photography and award-winning themed issues in music, art, fashion and film Dazed defines the cutting edge of style and fashion.

Mit der fortschreitenden Urbanisierung werden die Gegensätze von Stadt und Land, Zentrum und Peripherie, Kultur und Natur zunehmend aufgelöst. Der hierarchische Blick von der Stadt auf das Land wird umgekehrt, die romantische Verklärung des ländlichen Raumes als Ort der Natürlichkeit und Ursprünglichkeit, als Opfer der Industrialisierung und Verstädterung in Frage gestellt: Das Land wird zu einem ambivalenten Akteur, in vielerlei Hinsicht zum Vorreiter. Dem Philosophen Armen Avanessian zufolge sind Städte heute nur mehr vom Land aus zu betrachten, und dieses Land sei genauso wenig „natürlich“ wie der Rest der Natur.

Finland – though a small country judging by its population of 5.5 million inhabitants and population density of 18 inhabitants per km2 (the lowest in the EU) – boasts many superlatives: there are more saunas than cars; it has the most heavy metal bands per capita; any Finnish noun can have over 200 different forms; Finns are the world's top coffee drinkers, gulping down no less than 12 kg annually; they are the most avid readers of books and newspapers globally and world leaders in the use of libraries … The list goes on forever. We wanted to discover the design scene of Helsinki and its exciting summers, when the city is about to burst with culture and happy people, packed with outdoor theaters, al fresco cinemas, open-air exhibitions, awkward wife-carrying competitions and the great Flow festival! – only to frustratingly die down during the winter when the capital does not receive any sunshine for 51 consecutive days, with the temperature dropping below 0 degrees Celsius on an average of 169 days. When asking people how they survive the winter, quite a few have confessed that they hit southern destinations for a month, generously using up their vacation days. Most designers we met seem to have an awareness for design in their blood. The offices are packed with design classics combined with custom-made solutions, always with a sense of warmth, comfort and cosiness. In most offices people take off their shoes and walk around in slippers or barefoot – probably a tradition coming from those long snowy and muddy winters – admittedly, a little embarrassing for us Germans. Many design studios and agencies work for national brands with great pride, even if it is a Finnish pizza chain like Koti which named one of their bestsellers after Silvio Berlusconi – revenge served hot! In Helsinki, it becomes apparent that there are very few chain stores as we know them in Germany. It just seems to be too far away from market capitalism. Instead, as you walk through the city, Finland reveals itself to be a true design nation: Local brands, designers, shops, restaurants and cafés make it exceptional. You encounter works of the world’s most imitated and admired designers and architects around every corner. From Eero Aarnio’s Ball Chair (James Bond’s favorite seat) to Marimekko Poppies (dresses once worn by Jacqueline Kennedy during her husbands' 1960 presidential campaign), Finland has been setting trends for decades. We invite you to discover the world's northernmost EU capital during our journey and share with us the love for its rich design scene, from legends like Eric Brunn to the young wild kids, newcomers from Aalto University, The School of Arts, Design and Architecture of Helsinki.