015 - Lifestyle art magazine photographs men with strategy
Monopol, November 2020 issue
The Schlesisches Tor of art magazines
Hello Smart Art Lover,
First of all I would like to introduce you to another art magazine from Berlin. The Monopol - Magazin für Kunst und Leben (magazine for art and life) aims to embody the principle of art equals lifestyle equals celebrity culture and has already experienced some changes. In the boom years of the international art market, when everything was just going up, Florian-Generation-Golf-Illies and his wife Amélie von Heydebreck founded the Juno Verlag in 2004 with Monopol as their flagship. The champagne never stopped flowing. Not until the financial crash led the world to a great disillusionment. Cornelius Tittel, today responsible for BLAU, followed as editor-in-chief in 2008. Two years later Holger Liebs, who then moved to the art book publisher Hatje Cantz. In 2016 Elke Buhr took over as editor-in-chief, who had already been deputy editor-in-chief under Tittel. Illies and von Heydebreck sold the Juno Verlag in 2008 to the Ringier Group in Zurich. In 2016 Christoph Schwennicke, editor-in-chief of Cicero - Magazine for Political Culture and his deputy Alexander Marguier, acquired the magazine from the Swiss. Enough background information. Let's take a look at the monopoly.
On the current cover of the November issue you can see Katharina Sieverding, grand dame of the German artist scene. As I'm flipping through, after the art world news, I find a portrait of the Joseph Beuys student. She is followed by features of the shooting star of the early 2010s Simon Denny, by Peter Fischli, part of the legendary Swiss artist duo Fischli/Weiss, and by the hip hop photographer Martha Cooper. Okay. There's a look at the art market with a special on the Art Cologne fair and exhibition reviews that are not to be missed. Numerous columns loosen up this sequence. Annika von Taube suggests in the Gonzo-Art-Investment-Tip Strong Buy to purchase a caricature by Hauck & Bauer. I think this is quite a folly. Please keep your money and buy something of real value. Online Monopol appears like a table of contents of the print edition, and offers a podcast as a bonus.
The magazine for art and life tries to merge the rainbow press of Bunte with an established magazine á la Art. But it lacks the energy of KubaParis and the elitist small talk of BLAU. I would most likely compare it to the Schlesisches Tor in Berlin Kreuzberg. The area was super cool over ten years ago, now the circus has moved on. The hip bar from back then has already changed hands three times. The current owner is hoping for the return of the golden age, while aging wannabe hipsters are sucking on overpriced beer bottles at the bar. Buying this magazine you'll get a good overview of what's going on in the established art world. Nevertheless, the air is out.
Monopol - Magazin für Kunst und Leben
November 2020
EUR 12,80
monopol.de
Robbert Mapplethorpe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1976
Copyright: Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation
When is a man a man?
At the end of the European Month of Photography (EMOP) I did not visit all 100 exhibitions in Berlin. But I discovered some places I had not known before. The Istituto Italiano di Cultura in the side wing of the Italian embassy is one of them. I felt reminded of my academic year in Rome. The exhibition is located in an ugly corridor on the third floor. The opening hours are not visitor-friendly. I was the only visitor. But the photos of Letizia Battaglia about the Mafia and society in Palermo are impressive. A great place for exhibitions is the studio house of Camera Work, located in a second backyard of Kant Street. The current exhibition of Russell James presents, in my opinion, erotically tinged kitsch photography. If you want to see female models considered beautiful naked in nature, you have found your next destination. It is not mine.
And then there is a great place with a great exhibition. Masculinities - Liberation through Photography at the Gropiusbau is my highlight of EMOP. You remember that I was already looking forward to it. The curator Alona Pardo from London's Barbican Center combines a lot of different aspects, I find almost too many: archetypes, patriarchy, fatherhood, homosexuality, skin colour, women's perspective. And garnished this exuberant mixture with some icons of the 20th century. Robert Mapplethorpe's young Arnold Schwarzenegger. Herb Ritts Fred with tyres in the garage. Peter Hujar's orgasmic man. Even if the exhibition is frayed in some places, I advise you to check it out!
Masculinities. Liberation through Photography
curated by Alona Pardo
October 16, 2020 - January 10, 2021
Gropius Bau, Berlin
berlinerfestspiele.de
Be brave, gentle and smart.
Yours,
Florian
