Zapp Magazine
The artists and curators Corinne Groot, Jack Jaeger, Arnold Mosselman and Rob van de Ven began their work on Zapp Magazine in the 1990s in collaboration with numerous 'international correspondents'. The focus was placed less on the sharing and distribution of contemporary video works. More important was the documentation of current events – exhibitions, openings, performances, talks, concerts and the accompanying gossip – from the art scenes in Amsterdam, New York, London or Paris as unfiltered as possible.
The creators consciously decided against any additional commentary on the self-made video material. Their ambition was to establish the format of the video zine as a place for alternative art criticism, but free of critics and their subjective assessments. Largely filmed in a DIY aesthetic, the result is a unique portrait of a generation of artists around figures such as Mike Kelly, Constance DeJong, Julia Scher, Lily van der Stokker, Paul Thek, Dan Graham, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Cosima von Bonin, Kai Althof, and many others. A selection of this much larger collection of video recordings – which still needs further exploration – was brought together in ten issues of Zapp Magazine on VHS tapes from 1993 to 1999, each with a cover designed by different artists specifically for the publication. The issues of Zapp Magazine did not have an overarching thematic arrangement. The only decisive factors were the topicality of the artistic productions and the personal interest of those involved.
The first issue of Zapp Magazine, featuring an interview with Mike Kelly, excerpts of his video work Heidi, the video work Snaking by Pierre Joseph and Philippe Parreno, along with a short documentation of Gregory Green’s Work Table (1993), an installation from the Villa Arson in Nice and other contributions, were circulated privately in 1993 among those involved. An official launch of Zapp Magazine followed in 1994 with the presentation of the second issue; staged in the recently-opened Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (SMBA), this venue would become an important space for experimental projects in the city in the following years.
Featuring a cover artwork designed by Lily van der Stokker, the second issue showcased footage of Vito Acconci and Steven Holl's sculptural window display in New York, the artist video Erik by Georgina Starr, followed by the work Jenny by Carsten Höller, and the group exhibition Please Don't Hurt Me in Rotterdam curated by Jack Jaeger. Shortly afterwards, this issue was shown at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. John Armleder also provided his booth at the Art Basel for a small presentation the same year. In the following years, the regular distribution of Zapp Magazine took place primarily through a network of (art) bookstores, museums and galleries. Further screenings of the issues followed at the Grazer Kunstverein or at Air de Paris, Paris, both in 1995, as well as at the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart or at Greene Naftali Gallery New York, both in 1998.[1] (2023)
References[edit]
- ↑ After a transitional conclusion to the magazine's work, presentations followed at Kunstverein Amsterdam, Kunstverein Milano and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin - all in 2019 and at Buzzer Reeves, Berlin, 2023
Links[edit]
- Video Digest Magazine, a magazine and exhibition taking up impulses from historical video magazines such as Infermental, Video Congress and Zapp Magazine, 2023.
