There’s an enjoyable interview with Conor Donlon of Donlon Books in the latest apartamento magazine. This independent bookshop is my type of bookshop, (and it also sells mono.kultur).

Donlon Books
77 Broadway Market
London

Archizines
26 April – 26 May 2012

Archizines Live
Saturday 28 April 2012 / 17h
Panel Discussion  with Martin Pohl and Jonas Malzahn / Horizonte, Katja Gretzinger / Candide, Kai von Rabenau / mono.kultur and Robert Wilson / Block, moderated by Carson Chan and Elias Redstone

Reading Room
Potsdamer Strasse 98
10785 Berlin

The White Review

Their current and fourth issue has darker undertones of the economic crisis running throughout the content, aligning infectious poetry and fiction, essays on ruins, landscape art and concepts of the future in philosophy with fantastic interviews with political author and journalist Ahdaf Soueif and fashion photographer Juergen Teller – it’s a curious mixture and no mean feat indeed, but all executed with aplomb and pressing passion.

It is strikingly beautifully designed by Ray O’Meara, who adheres to the rules of traditional book design to a point where it almost turns radical – meanwhile subverting the tight grid by slipping in various inserts, a poster as cover and plenty of little details that infect the minimalist traditionalism with a tactility and sense of playfulness that is enviable.

At times, The White Review reminds me a little of McSweeneys’ The Believer, albeit without the pop factor, but generally on a more serious and European note. It’s a surprising and more than worthwhile publication, and one of the best magazines I’ve seen emerge in a while. Highly Recommended.

If you are in Berlin, then you can see for yourself at a presentation at Motto, once again, on April 20.

Facing Pages
April 20–22, 2012
Trans 6
6811 HR Arnhem
The Netherlands

IPF Book & Zine Fair
07 April 2012
10–16h

The Workers Club
51 – 55 Gertrude
St, Fitzroy, VIC 3065
Australia

Berlin-based artist Cyprien Gaillard once argued that architecture can be experienced at its best in a state of sullen hang-over, and ever since I dragged some visiting friends along to the Soviet War Memorial for a freezing Sunday’s winter walk with a sharp headache and much too little sleep behind us after a long night, I tend to agree.

We had walked through East Berlin’s Treptower Park and came up the steps to the memorial, flanked by two kneeling soldiers hoisting up granite Soviet flags, when we had our moment: The ridiculously oversized field of tombstones came into sight, crowned by the literally gigantic statue of the soldier – carrying a child on his left, a sword in his right, with a crushed swastika underfoot – silhouetted against the sky while darkness fell. It was kind of awe-inspiring and absurd at the same time. It was a magic moment.

Berlin, of course, embodies Europe’s troubled past of the 20^th century like no other, traces of which can be found all over the grey city – most obviously in the architecture and countless monuments from different eras, not seldom cause for controversy, demonstrating the city’s uneasy relationship with its own unwelcome heritage. While the Fascist era has its most dramatic architectural embodiment in the 1936 Olympic Stadium on the western side of the city, the Soviet War Memorial might be its Communist counterpart, and a case in point as to how similar the imagery of the two opposing ideologies actually was.

Imposed in 1949 on the East German government by the Soviet Union as a memorial and cemetery to some of the 80,000 fallen Russian soldiers during the Battle of Berlin, the Soviet Monument has never been popular with East Berliners, and today it is fortunately largely ignored. Which makes it a great place to go and think, as it’s mostly deserted and windswept, in a soothing kind of way. The magic moment never fails to impress – particularly on a cold and rainy winter evening with a severe hangover.

Photography by Kai von Rabenau

Athenaeum
Spui 14-16
Amsterdam

Publish and Be Damned
17 March 2012 / 12 – 18h

Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall
London SW1Y 5AH

Probably, you have already met Candy, a fashion magazine celebrating transvestism, transexuality, crossdressing and androgyny. The cover with James Franco, shot by Terry Richardson was a big thing for the press. Fanzine137 is a fanzine – as it is understood from the name -published by the same editor Luis Venegas. As Candy, Fanzine137 is self published and limited edition.

Skateboarding in the 1960s, photos by Bill Eppridge for LIFE magazine. Posted last week by HUH. magazine.