October 15, 2019
We are delighted to announce the release of KALEIDOSCOPE‘s new issue #35 (fall/winter 2019/20), premiering in Paris on October 17 with a launch event at Lafayette Anticipations.
This issue comes with a set of four covers:
Three of them—featuring Anne Imhof (photographed by Nadine Fraczkowski), Yung Lean (photographed by Joshua Gordon) and Hideo Kojima—introduce the theme survey GOTHIC REDUX. As capital is at war against nature, and the euphoria towards the possibilities of the digital has failed against disinformation and alienation, a new Gothic spirit penetrates much of today’s art and culture, fostered by apocalyptic readings of automation, artificial intelligence and climate change. This multi-disciplinary report—encompassing contemporary art, music, architecture, gaming and obscure subcultures—explores how artists and creators are embracing melancholy, the sublime power of chaos, and the unknown, to address the gloomy side of our present condition. Featuring an introduction by Caroline Busta and LIL INTERNET, an interview with artists Anne Imhof and Eliza Douglas (by Bill Kouligas), essays on rapper/producer Yung Lean (by Katja Horvat) and gaming mastermind Hideo Kojima (by Lana Polansky), as well as Franklin Melendez’s take on New Gotham seen through the eyes of contemporary artists (with an enclosed poster by Darja Bajagić); plus stories on architecture firm Armature Globale (by Mahfuz Sultan), artist Yngve Holen (by Katja Horvat) and the enduring legacy of Horrorcore (by Michelle Kim).
The fourth cover, featuring an artwork by design studio Sucuk und Bratwurst, is dedicated to Holy Bubble: A Sneaker Report. What is the common thread between a KAWS painting smashing action records at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, a sneaker resale website raising billion-dollar funding from venture capital, and Kanye West appearing on the front cover of Forbes magazine? While sneaker mania may be news to some, and luxury fashion has only recently started to appropriate and reinterpret this obsession-inducing grail, today’s frantic marketplace is commodifying a phenomenon that’s been developing for decades. Semantic categories of niche and mainstream, luxury and mass, source and replica cave in on each other. Isabel Flower unpacks the genealogy of this pandemic trend, with contributions by five designers and a visual artist.
Additionally, a limited-edition cover and an enclosed flexi disc with an exclusive track enrich the story dedicated to Mark Leckey. As a kid, the British artist had a strange supernatural encounter while hanging around underneath a bridge. Now that this early memory has morphed into a large-scale installation at Tate Britain, Francesca Gavin draws connections to the isolation of the individual in an industrialized society, the death of the magical, the jingoistic rhetoric of contemporary Britishness, folklore and urban drama.
Also featured in this issue:
Avery Singer (photography by David Brandon Geeting, essay by Alex Bacon and interview by Simon Denny); Frida Orupabo (essay by Hanna Girma); Max Hooper Schneider (photography by Thomas Giddings, essay by Travis Diehl); Franco “Bifo” Berardi (interview by Jefferson Hack, with a portfolio by Satoshi Fujiwara); Kiko Kostadinov (photography by Takahito Sasaki, interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist); and New York: Club Kids (essay by Dalya Benor).
SEASON, the magazine’s opening section, accounts for the best of this fall/winter with profiles and interviews: Jill Mulleady by Lola Kramer; Melina Matsoukas by Amir George; Generation Z by Anastasiia Fedorova; Civilization by Harry Burke; Pan Daijing by Richard Birkett; Farah Al Qasimi by Myriam Ben Salah; Larry Legaspi by Matthew Linde; Lito Kattou by Federico Sargentone; Reba Maybury by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen; Youths in Balaclava by Carlotta Maneschi; Peter Saul by Piper Marshall; Caterina Barbieri by Federico Sargentone; Matt Copson by Charlie Fox; Hal Fischer by Jeppe Ugelvig; Ron Nagle by Christopher Schreck; Courrèges by Madeleine Holth; Michele Rizzo by Jeppe Ugelvig; and Ezra Miller by Geoffrey Mak.
Archive Dreams, a think piece by Tiffany Godoy, closes the issue with a comment on the value and cultural relevance of collecting archival fashion in the Instagram era.