Dear Friends,

in this strange year of a global pandemic, race riots, and an increasingly toxic discourse in politics and society, our new issue couldn’t come more timely, featuring Eyal Weizman, the outspoken founder of Forensic Architecture.

Made up of architects, lawyers, journalists, scientists, designers, and more, Forensic Architecture is part investigative research lab, human rights activism hub, political think tank, journalism bureau, artists’ collective, and detective agency. Based at Goldsmiths, University of London, the group investigate the wider repercussions of human rights and environmental violations by the means of architectural thinking. In 10 years of work, they have researched illegal detention sites in Cameroon, examined police shootings in Chicago and elsewhere, modelled a prison in Syria using victims’ memories of sound, and digitally recreated the fires at Grenfell Tower in London. At its forefront is Eyal Weizman, a British Israeli architect.

Born in 1970 in Haifa, Weizman studied at the Architectural Association in London before gaining international recognition with an exhibition of models of Jewish settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories. The work spoke of his projects to come: of his use of architecture as a means of investigation, and refusal to be silenced by those in a position of power.

Forensic Architecture has since used a range of pioneering techniques, from reading the ‘fingerprints’ of smoke clouds left behind by missile strikes, to programming algorithms to sift through thousands of online videos. Their research is used mainly as evidence in court cases and tribunals, but has also leaked into the public spheres of museums and art exhibitions – including their contribution to last year’s Whitney Biennial in New York, where they exposed the vice chair of the Whitney board as owner of Safariland, a corporation earning their fortunes with the manufacturing of ‘less-lethal weapons’.

With mono.kultur, Eyal Weizman talked about obsessing over split seconds, information as a form of power, and the smell of tear gas.

The issue comes bursting at the seams with content, featuring one of our longest interviews yet, as well as dozens of projects by Forensic Architecture, all extensively explained and illustrated.

In short, mono.kultur #48 tackles plenty of contemporary issues highly relevant this of all years. Available as ever through our online store mono.konsum, or at the trusted book dealer of your choice very soon indeed.

Enjoy and all our best,
mono.kultur

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mono.kultur #48

EYAL WEIZMAN / FORENSIC ARCHITECTURE: EVERYTHING RECORDS
“The secret is already out there, if you know how to look.”

Autumn 2020 / English / 15 x 20 cm / 44 Pages

Interview by Freya Marshall
Works by Forensic Architecture
Design by Hui Yeon Hwang

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Our longtime collaborator (emphasis on loooong time) and programmer of our choice Christian Frey also happens to be passionate about two things beyond the screen: documentary photography and soccer. Both of which worlds merged in his ongoing project of documenting the Football World Cups since 2006, but on fan and street level. To be continued in Russia this summer, but before that, he will exhibit a selection of hilarious and somehow touching fan culture moments at Freelens Gallery in Hamburg, opening tonight.

Christian Frey
The Final Whistle
31. Mai – 9. August 2018

Freelens Gallery
Alter Steinweg 15
20459 Hamburg

Last weekend, the New York Times Magazine, ever worth watching and recently in the hands of art director Matt Willey – who also designed our issue with Chris Ware – forayed into new territories of virtual reality. The issue came with Google’s cardboard VR viewer that you can slide your smartphone into to access a virtual reality animation leading you into the world of three refugee children, whose biographies form the content of the magazine. A feature that works surprisingly well according to magCulture – or see for yourself. Gimmick or the future of print? Time will tell, but for now an interesting experiment with expanding the borders of print reportage.

Now that the mother of all streetstyle magazines, i-D, has been swallowed up by the Vice empire for a bright and digital future, it’s only fair enough to cash in on the long legacy of the printed edition with a look back at 35 years’ worth of more than 300 covers featuring that famous wink.

“On a recent visit to the Sacramento library, the high number of homeless patrons I saw there surprised me. Seeing them in that quiet space, consumed by traditional media, I was struck by the difference between them and most of society with its 24/7 connection to streaming digital media. I began this project to take myself out of my own patterns and habits, to change my perspective, to observe, to listen, to understand, and to share this place of quiet.” Fritz Hoffmann via National Geographic.

The whole heck you have here:

Experimental Electronic Communication from out worldly sources through the forces of Cassette. Presenting the full version of Kurt Cobain’s “Montage Of Heck.” (1986)

A photojoournalist Brandley Secker, has been documenting gay and transgender asylum seekers residing in Turkey. The series Kütmaan, meaning hidden or concealed in Arabic, depicts the lives whilst waiting to be approved and welcomed by the West.

Not only from Iran, but also from other parts of Middle East, thousands try to escape from the war supported by US with the guns produced in US and EU… Meanwhile, they are trying to live in the camps that are provided for them. The spokeswoman of refugees in Berlin, Napuli Paul Langa, is an important figure to learn more about the burden.

The cosy space of w o l f that is built collectively by the members called Wolf Gang is working on a crowd-funding campaign WOLF Kino Gang to be able to transform the space for workshops, installations, performances, events, as well as being a cinema. Therefore, Wolf Gang need your support!

Photography: The Long Lines by Spencer Harding