Architectural Fanzines and Alternative Publishing Phenomenon Celebrated at the AA School

• New exhibition reveals astonishing insight into how people around the world relate to  their built environment. 
• From the homemade fanzine to the professional magazine - the desire to talk about architecture is global.
• ARCHIZINES: Public Opening 5 November – 14 December 2011.
• Front Members’ Room, AA School, 36 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ES
• Press Preview and curator tour 4 November – details below.
• New catalogue published by Bedford Press to accompany show
• Images – http://bit.ly/aaschool

From photo-copied and print-on-demand newsletters such as Another Pamphlet, Scapegoat and Preston is My Paris, to beautiful magazines such as Mark, Spam and PIN-UP - ARCHIZINES is a new FREE exhibition curated by Elias Redstone for the Architectural Association School of Architecture that celebrates and promotes the recent resurgence of alternative and independent architectural publishing from around the world.  The exhibition opens on 5 November and runs until 14 December 2011 at the AA School, 36 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ES. [Press Preview and curator tour 4 November – details below].

ARCHIZINES showcases 60 architecture magazines, fanzines and journals from over 20 countries across the globe. [Full list below] From Australia and Argentina to the UK and USA, these independent publications are reframing how people relate to their built environment – taking comment and criticism out of just an architectural arena and into everyday life.  The titles also provide platforms for architectural research and debate, and demonstrate the residual love of the printed word and paper page – providing an antidote to digital publishing. Each magazine is presented with video interviews with their creators enabling visitors to understand their approach to publishing architecture.  

ARCHIZINES began life as a personal collection of curator and writer Elias Redstone built from his international travels. He launched it as an online project, with art direction by Barcelona-based Folch Studio, at http://www.archizines.com. This website connected the titles, their readers and creators and enabled the collection to grow.  The exhibition has been curated by Elias to capture this moment of publishing activity, allow people to view the publications – some of which currently have little international distribution – and encourage new editorial talent to emerge.

Elias Redstone says:  “I was surprised to come across independent publications in almost every country I visited that celebrate architecture and people’s experience of it. Many of these publications are only in their first few issues and, despite the increasing dominance of the internet, there is a real desire by architects, artists, students and others to express themselves through printed matter. From fanzines to academic and more professionally-oriented journals, these publications add an important, and often radical, addition to architectural discourse. I hope this project inspires more people to think critically about the buildings and spaces around them”

To coincide with the exhibition the full ARCHIZINES collection will be transferred to the National Art Library at the V&A. By providing a permanent home for the publications collected as part of the ARCHIZINES research project, this period of publishing activity will be available as a public resource for generations to come.

ARCHIZINES is part of the AA School’s ongoing programme of FREE talks, exhibitions and events enabling all those interested in architecture and the built environment to explore these subjects with the globe’s brightest thinkers and fore-most practitioners.

The ARCHIZINES exhibition will tour internationally in 2012.

An accompanying catalogue, published by Bedford Press, further explores the relationship between architecture and publishing with contributions from Pedro Gadanho (Beyond), Iker Gil (MAS Context), Adam Murray (Preston is my Paris), Rob Wilson (Block), Mimi Zeiger (Maximum Maxim MMX/loudpaper) and more. Themes addressed in a series of new essays include the role of publishing in academia and architectural practice, and the representation of architecture in fictional writing, photography, magazines and fanzine culture.

Exhibition opening times: Monday to Friday 10am – 7pm, Saturday 9am – 5pm, closed Sunday.  

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Press Preview 4 November 10:00 – 12:00hrs:  Tour of ARCHIZINES with Elias Redstone at the AA School, 36 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ES.  RSVP Maxim Bendall at Kallaway:  020 7221 7883 or email maxim.bendall@kallaway.com

Further information:  Kallaway PR

• Maxim Bendall, 020 7221 7883 or maxim.bendall@kallaway.com
• Will Kallaway, 020 7221 7883 or William.kallaway@kallaway.com
• Images: http://bit.ly/aaschool

Praise for ARCHIZINES

"An important cohesive resource for the design world."
Archdaily

“The ultimate confluence of coolness”
Design Crack

"This is a fantastic forum for an exchange of ideas and thoughts covering all aspects of the architectural realm. It sometimes takes an online platform like ARCHIZINES to demonstrate that the printed international architecture press is very much alive and kicking."
Felix Burrichter, Editor/Creative Director, PIN-UP

"In an increasingly profit-driven, uncritical, image-ruled, and meaningless world, an initiative such as ARCHIZINES can never be valued highly enough."
Bernd Upmeyer, Editor-in-chief, MONU

"After a few shows and historical recollections, finally there is an ongoing archive of those little magazines that, in architecture as in other cultural areas, are still popping up to reveal today's creative energy beyond an increasingly boring mainstream. For all reasons, ARCHIZINES is a project that Beyond is proud to support."
Pedro Gadanho, Editor of Beyond and Shrapnel Contemporary

“In a context where most mainstream architecture magazines do mainly mainstream architecture, publications which question the profession and the way we experience buildings and cities open up windows to other sources of thought and inspiration which can enrich the field.”
Pablo Léon de la Barra, Editor, Pablo Internacional Magazine

The AA School, 36 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ES, www.aaschool.ac.uk
           
Elias Redstone is an independent curator and writer specialising in contemporary architecture and architectural photography. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the London Architecture Diary and a columnist for the New York Times’ T Magazine design blog. Elias curated Poland's national pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2010 and was Senior Curator at The Architecture Foundation. He has delivered projects in partnership with the Barbican, British Council, Center for Architecture NYC, Design Museum, London Festival of Architecture, MoMA, Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and Victoria & Albert Museum.
www.eliasredstone.com

Folch Studio is a creative agency based in Barcelona. Launched by Albert Folch and Rafael Martínez in 2004 the Studio specializes in editorial design, art direction, publicity, exhibition design, website and video. National and international clients include Electric Youth! Magazine, Fanzine137, Fundació Miró, Mango, Metal Magazine, MUSAC, Peres Project, Tiger Magazine and TV3/C33.
www.folchstudio.com

Bedford Press was initiated by the Architectural Association, London in 2008 as a publishing imprint that seeks to develop contemporary models of publication practice. The press aims to establish a more responsive model of small-scale publishing, nimble enough to encompass the entire chain of production in a single fluid activity, from initial commission to the final printing.
www.bedfordpress.org

Publications in the exhibition include :

1. America Deserta Revisted, from London, UK
2. Another Pamphlet, from New York City, USA
3. Apartamento, from Barcelona, Spain
4. Archinect News Digest, from Los Angeles, USA
5. Beyond, from Amsterdam, Netherlands
6. Block, from London, UK
7. Bracket, from Toronto, Canada
8. Camenzind, from Zurich, Switzerland
9. Candide, from Aachen, Germany
10. Civic City Cahier, from London, UK
11. Conditions, from Oslo, Norway
12. Cornell Journal of Architecture, from Ithaca, New York, USA
13. Criticat, from Paris, France
14. Club Donny, from Amsterdam, Netherlands
15. dérive, from Vienna, Austria
16. Ein Magazin über Orte, from Berlin, Germany
17. engawa, from Barcelona, Spain
18. Evil People in Modern Homes in Popular Films, from New York City, USA
19. face b, from Paris, France
20. Foreign Architects Switzerland, from Zurich, Switzerland
21. Friendly Fire, from Porto, Portugal
22. Generalist, from Frankfurt, Germany
23. Horizonte, from Weimar, Germany
24. Junk Jet, from Stuttgart, Germany
25. Kerb, from Melbourne, Australia
26. Le Journal Spéciale’Z, from Paris, France
27. Log, from New York City, USA
28. MAP, from Copenhagen, Denmark
29. Mark, from Amsterdam, Netherlands
30. MAS Context, from Chicago, USA
31. matzine, from Dublin / London / Dundee, Ireland / UK
32. Maximum Maxim MMX, from New York City, USA
33. Megawords, from New York City, USA
34. mono.kultur, from Berlin, Germany
35. Monu, from Rotterdam, Netherlands
36. no now, from New York City, USA
37. OASE , from Rotterdam, Netherlands
38. One:Twelve, from Columbus, Ohio, USA
39. P.E.A.R., from London, UK
40. Pablo Internacional, from Mexico City / London, Mexico / UK
41. PIDGIN, from Princeton, New Jersey, USA
42. PIN-UP, from New York City, USA
43. PLAT, from Houston, Texas, USA
44. PLOT, from Buenos Aires, Argentina
45. Preston is my Paris, from Preston / London, UK
46. Public Library, from Santiago, Chile
47. San Rocco, from Venice, Italy
48. Scapegoat, from Toronto, Canada
49. scopio, from Porto, Portugal
50. SOILED, from Chicago, USA
51. SPAM, from Santiago, Chile
52. The Modernist, from Manchester, UK
53. The Weather Ring, from Perth, Australia
54. Thresholds, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
55. TOO MUCH, from Tokyo, Japan
56. Touching Architecture, from London, UK
57. UP, from Antwerp / Brussels, Belgium
58. UR, from Buenos Aires, Argentina
59. Volume, from Amsterdam, Netherlands
60. What About It?, from Beijing, China

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