Simulacrum Vol. 32, #2
125 x 280 mm, 104 pages
Amsterdam, Netherlands (Dutch and English-language)
Quarterly
Editors: Anna Odink, Merthe Voorhoeve and Naomi van Kleef
Netherlands-based arts and culture publication Simulacrum explores a different theme with every issue. Platforming topics from both historical and contemporary perspectives, their features are written by both established experts and up-and-coming writers (student writers are welcome here).
Formerly petite, recent issues have seen the magazine reshaped into a new tall and slim format, held together with a pleasingly-thick rubber band. This time, that tall, slim body is charcoal grey with a ghoulish, lilac illustration. On the theme, Phantoms, the team write:
‘A phantom is an ethereal, otherworldly figure, existing on the fringes of our reality, always in the back of our minds. It is a shadow that lives in the corner of our eye and at the margins of language, ever-displaced. A palimpsest presence hinging on our imaginations, flickering in and out of existence, yet always haunting, (un)settling, and speaking to whomever dares to speak back and whoever tries to capture its name. Phantom, phantasm, spectre, ghost, all disjointing time and space, entangling here and there (and) now and then, past and future. Phantoms tend to linger and seep into the present, shaping our current lives and cultural landscapes. What is haunted, what are we haunted by, and can we haunt them back?’