EIKON: INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY AND MEDIA ART
The bilingual (English/German) journal EIKON is thematically divided into two parts: the first part, the "Artist's Pages," includes artistic and theoretical contributions, and is intended as a forum for artists. An important focus here is placed on presenting and promoting young artists working in the realms of photography, media art, and between the disciplines. We also often present new positions in the work of established artists.
The second part of EIKON focuses in the form of regular series on current and interesting issues in art or cultural policy. In addition, institutions, collections, galleries, and (artistic) groups are presented. Numerous book reviews, extensive reviews of exhibitions, a comprehensive exhibition calendar and information about grants, prizes, and events complete the journal.
The focus of the current issue is on Belgium. In the following, you can read the editorial.
Belgium in View
While in the past EIKON has also looked at the photography and media art of other countries, we will now be doing this on a more regular basis and in more detail. In special focus issues, the artist pages will be exclusively dedicated to artists from a particular country, while the informational section will provide theoretical observations and essays on the country in question. Hitting the newsstands on the day of Belgium's Grand Prix, September 14, in this 59th issue of EIKON we will focus our attention on that Benelux country. Photography and media art is our Formula 1, but we place no one on the winner's platform: when we decided to place our focus on Belgium, we were primarily interested in individual positions that attest to the variety of the country's artistic, photographic landscape.
In a sense, the works of CHARIF BENHELIMA reflect this intention: this is what motivated us to choose him for the cover. In his reduced Polaroids (which he not only chose in this jubilee year of the instant photograph his preferred medium) he concentrates entirely on the thing. Through this temporary bracketing of all knowledge, he returns freedom to the essential.
JAN KEMPENAERS also directs his camera towards a particular country, proving to be heritage specialist in the metaphorical sense, when he explores traces of the former Yugoslavia. Finding symbols of past ideologies now freed of their original ideas, he declares them picturesque subjects as secret signs in nature.
Like a surveillance camera, ELS VANDEN MEERSCH directs her gaze towards empty places and explores visual power relations in public space. In her photomontages, architecture becomes a psychological portrait of the individual, the community, or an entire political era.
The interest in the aesthetic of surveillance and the clichés of filmic tension can also be found in the current works of GERT JOCHEMS. This work is about pornography, the image trouvée, but at the same time about so much more: it is about the sublimated expression of the longing for happiness, which especially in Austria was so lastingly presented by artists from the early twentieth century, and can justifiably be called eternally recurrent in the history of art.
The "harsh" look of VANESSA VAN OBBERGHEN unhinges all temporalities. With a biting wit, in her photography, videos, and installations she is able to stop the movement of images and at the same time drive fantasy forward, thus creating the splendid basis for a contemporary psycho-thriller.
In our information section, we continue our exploration of the country: with Jan Baetens from the Lieven Gevaert Centre for Photography and Visual Studies KU Leuven we go in search of a Belgian photography, we explore with Maarten Vanvolsem the world of arts higher education in Flanders and discover with Katarzyna Ruchel-Stockmans the influence of photography on the work of Luc Tuymans. Christine de Naeyer interviewed four of the most important private collectors of Belgium exclusively for EIKON, asking them about the significance of photography and media art and the decisive criteria for their collecting and vision. And finally we can present to you a book that recently appeared under the star of Belgium.
In Forum, Christian Brandstätter pays homage not only to the work of the great Austrian photographer Franz Hubmann, who died in his 92nd year, but also tells us something about the full, well-rounded life of his friend.
In an interview, Gerald Bast, rector of Vienna's Universität für Angewandte Kunst, looks at the cooperation between EIKON and Vienna's classes of photography and media art, which for this first year was reserved exclusively for students from UAK.
Read also in this issue of EIKON a critical exploration of the 52nd Venice Biennial, the third installment of our series "Exsampling," as well as a report on our successful Polaroid charity auction in May to benefit the Integrationshaus.
Now take a look inside the country-we wish you fun and excitement on your journey!
Elisabeth M. Gottfried
And all of us at EIKONwww.eikon.at
PS: Not only is Belgium a guest at EIKON, but EIKON will also be a guest in Belgium. We are pleased to announce that we have been invited to present our latest edition at Fotomuseum Antwerpen on October 25 at a soirée belge together with the two Belgian photography magazines View and FotoMuseum magazine.
