mono.kultur #49
Occasional interview magazine mono.kultur is back with another issue making the most of print techniques.
Since 2005, the diminutive magazine has presented indepth interviews with 49 very different creatives—artists, musicians, designers, photographers, authors and more.
This latest issue features Spanish artist Santiago Sierra. Known for his confontational ‘remunerative actions’, where he pays people to enact humiliating scenerios, Sierra likes to test our reactions to exploitation—‘widely acclaimed and frequently despised for his controversial performances,’ as the magazine descibes him on its website. The artist adds, ‘I am just showing a spark of the persistent evil that is out there.’
A regular feature of Sierra’s work is the hidden; people stare at walls with their back to the viewer, or sit in cardboard boxes for hours. And the artist himself is famously camera shy—often only seen from behind in photographs.
Although always A5-sized, mono.kultur always adapts its format to the subject; in this case, every page has a fold-out extra section.
At first glance, the entire issue is only image: spread after spread of black and white reproductions of Sierra’s work. But open the fold-outs, and beneath is the interview text: ever-present but hidden from view.
It perfectly echoes the work of its subject—at first disturbing and unexplained, but with many ideas and thoughts built into its preparation, not least the slightly raw feeling of the print reproduction. The faded blacks and running lines behind the texts are entirely deliberate.
Editor/publisher: Kai von Rabenau
Design: mono.studio