Well, it’s a publication. Actually, I don’t know what to call it. I like ot say publication but it’s not only that. It’s also not a magazine, or a book. Saying it’s a book feels like it’s a memoir, which it isn’t. And a magazine seems a bit unserious. In a way.

I guess the goal is to create a forum in book-format. There’s a lack of initiatives for people to discuss and share things openly, especially outside of Instagram, and the internet. When I find something, I feel as though it’s only for a select few. You have to submit to the same style, or ‘aesthetic’, which is a word I hate.

What’s your aesthetic? I hate that word and I hate that question…

The idea of a MAGAZINE… came a couple of years ago when I was in Stockholm. I was browsing an art-bookstore and stumbled upon a magazine, the name of which I cannot remember anymore. But there was a text in it about how the city of Kiruna in northern Sweden is moving. Basically, beneath the city is one of the biggest iron ore mines in the world. And because it’s being mined so much, the city on top (Kiruna) is sinking. So they have to move the city.

Anyway, the text was about that and what it means for a person’s perception of ‘home’ to have their city physically moved from one place to the other.

I was so intrigued by the idea of a magazine – an art magazine – where someone could send in something like that and have it published. Even though it’s not necessarily connected to art. All the possibilities… Maybe that’s the idea. Like a running blog on various topics in a physical format that may provoke discussion.

Showing a draft for his my teacher told me it’s (or I am) eclectic. And it’s true. And I never know if that’s a good thing or not. Being all over the place. It all boils down to the similar question of ‘is it better to know a bit about everything or a lot about something?’ And I don’t know. Also, I still don’t know exactly what this magazine is or what the point is. It all remains to be seen.

But you must have some sort of idea? A forum – how do you facilitate that?

I think it’s always good to get started. As I’m looking at the indesign document I feel it’s shit. I know absolutely nothing about graphic design, but I know I want to do it myself and not ask someone else to do it for me.

But how one goes about creating a forum I think may be just about having a vague idea and then getting the ball rolling. Seeing where it goes and following that.

I’ve book suggestions later on in the publication. I don’t know if it’s trying to create a discussion, if I’m trying to fill the pages with something. Or better yet, if I’m just trying to tell people I’ve read Twain and Brontë.

They’re books I’ve read and you know the feeling when you’ve read a good book, or listened to a good song or seen a good movie, your mind starts to race and you want to do something with it? Understand it maybe, or share it with others.

Also I like the idea of a manifesto. Mike Brown’s I don’t know what to think about anything (it don’t matter, nohow) from 1972 is brilliant. I don’t know any of his art, but I found the manifesto in the Jessica Lack collection of 100 world artist’s manifestos:

It’s (art) a way of living and thinking, a way for me to transmit to you the totality of my being and for you to transmit your totality to me. /…/ Artists should forget about art a little and start wondering about what they were born onto the earth for, where they stand in relation to everything that’s happening in this world, and whether what they are doing is as meaningful in a total sense as, say, planting a row of cabbages, building a chicken-coop, or going for a walk in the bush.

Yeah I know that feeling. And I like your idea of getting things started and then seeing where it takes you. Would you say then that this publication is also a way for you to put into a format your inspirations? Like a moodboard?

Well I guess you could say that. But I don’t like the idea of this being only my personal moodboard. It’s not that…

It would be ridiculous. This publication isn’t only for me. Another teacher said as though it was obvious ”Oh so you’re inspired by what Jens is doing?” when she read the interview with Jens Mogensen (p. 22-27). I guess I am inspired but it’s not about that. It’s not about me.

How the hell does one make that known?

This isn’t a moodboard. I want others to partake.

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Interview originally published in the first edition of the publication. October 2023.