From the 29 th of june till the 29 th August you can visit a lovely magazine expo at La Casa Encendida in Madrid in which Ultraviolet is featured.
‘De Zines’, tries to reflect what is happening in the contemporary editorial creation on the level of independent publications, how this area relates to the artistic production and social, cultural and current political environment.Around 400 international publications have been gathered from most established magazines in the market until handmade zines and a selection of experimental magazines.
In times of constant technological revolution and immediate access to information through the network, paper, as a media for the dissemination of culture and information seems destined to disappear. However, the number of independent publications do not stop growing. In fact, different forms of communication, digital and analogue can coexist. It’s about different ways, uses and times ranging between the immediacy of digital and the traditional way of disseminating and consuming cultural creation and art. Its contents tend to be more timeless and invite paused reflection. Beautiful design and text written with loving care in a continuous search for seamless integration between content and form. In general, they are still spaces for dissemination, review and reflection on cultural production. Objects themselves, everlasting, pages of printed paper that can be touched with the fingers, means of underground cultural expression. In the case of experimental magazines involves a different way to approach to these publications, full of visual impact, subject to different interpretations, inexhaustible source of emotions and feelings. They already have a notable presence in art fairs, specialized bookstores and museum shops.
These editorial projects, heirs of the phenomenon do it yourself culture derived from punk and art movements such as Dadaism, Surrealism and Fluxus, are living a resurgence. Some have remained fairly true to those principles, others have grown in distribution, budget and number of prints. They all share an independent spirit in addressing issues like music, film, fashion, design, art, philosophy, economics, literature, photography ... or closer personal projects to more people. In fact, they are a response to dominant culture, with a clear activist attitude, trying to spread other ways to understand their relations with society and even with oneself.
Independent publications may be the future of print media. In fact they get a significant speed in the dissemination of current culture with a democratic way to create and share images, ideas and information. Pages filled with an impeccable editorial design, a media for freedom of expression of the obsessions and passions their creators want to communicate, have a voice. ’De Zines’, articulated as a consultation room, a space that does not only creates traffic but a place to stay, increasing the desire to know, trying to help the audience to find a those issues so that a sense of recognition.
In short, create networks among people with a similar vision in a global and plural world.
