Kaleidoscope, Issue 41 – FW22 (Charles Atlas)

At the core of a platform that includes an exhibition space and an independent publishing house, Kaleidoscope is an international quarterly of contemporary art and culture founded in 2009 in Milan. Distributed worldwide on a seasonal basis, it has gained widespread recognition as a trusted and timely guide to the present (but also to the past and possible futures), unique in its interdisciplinary and unconventional approach.

In this issue:

In conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, artist Charles Atlas reminisces about starting out in the NYC underground drag scene of the 1970s, and collaborating with the likes of Merce Cunningham, Michael Clark, and Leigh Bowery. Reinterpreted through the lens of photographer Charlie Engman, his lexicon is one of raw energy and omnivorous imagination, spanning from docu-fantasy to mathematics, from TV to TikTok…

…Shot in Tokyo by Motoyuki Daifu on the occasion of his Don’t Follow Me Because I’m Lost Too!! tour, London-based VEGYN is something of a prodigy, having produced music for the likes of Frank Ocean, founded his own record label, and doubled as a graphic designer. Here, he sits down for a chat with Cyrus Goberville to explain how he remains level-headed in the oversaturated electronic music arena…

…DJ Harvey has been a fixture on the dancefloor since he started DJing in 1985, going all the way from the phoneless freedom of those anarchic acid house parties to gaining deity status as an early pioneer of the Balearic sound. Captured by Anton Gottlob at Ibiza’s legendary hotel and nightclub, Pikes, he flaunts his playboy style and carefree worldview, as Thomas Gorton picks his brain on the future of dance music…

…No longer referring to the stuffy, old-moneyed, exclusionary world it once represented, the term “preppy” is undergoing something of a renaissance. In a bootleg, updated version of the ironic “Official Preppy Handbook” from the 1980s, featuring photography by Tim Schutsky, we reclaim Prep style for a new dapper class, appropriating not just the dress but the full package of mannerisms, signifiers, and curated experiences—to very different ends…

…Formerly known as boychild, a moniker that embraced myriad explorations at the fringes of being human, Tosh Basco now returns to a vulnerable, fleeting, porous self. Captured by Lee Wei Swee and interviewed by X Zhu-Nowell, she describes her improvisation-based performances as a mode of survival and world-building—a subtle testament to the ungraspable nature of living, stemming from feelings of non-belonging and erasure…

…A special, limited-edition cover story provides a cultural reading of the work of Mark Flood from the ’90s to recent years, as he continues to probe the basic precepts and structures of the art world—or, as he puts it, to “fuck the frame.” In conversation with Patrick McGraw, the Houston-based artist discusses ideas of irony, performativity, and ownership in an increasingly appearance-based world.

Also featured in this issue: Men About Rome. An original photo story by Piotr Niepsuj presents the eternal city through the eyes of two outstanding Ciceros—Italian painter Enzo Cucchi (interviewed by Luca Lo Pinto) and American-born filmmaker Abel Ferrara (interviewed by Carlo Antonelli)—and gives us an exclusive private tour of the marvelous house-museum of Giorgio de Chirico; Chaotic! Whitney Mallet excavates this year’s particular chaos through an essay about our reality defined by anxiety, content glut, stimuli overload, and empathy fatigue, showcasing the most triggering episodes of 2022––from Shanghai lockdowns to the Oscar slap, from Roe v. Wade to the Depp v. Heard trial, from Monkeypox to all things Ye; In the year marking its 25th anniversary, Berlin-based brand BLESS keeps occupying a “third space” between contemporary art and fashion, with intellectual, pragmatic, tongue-in-cheek products. Taking input from a wide variety of voices, an essay by Jeppe Ugelvig proves how their designer-as-artist medium was distinctly ahead of the curve; “SEASON,” the magazine’s opening section, accounts for the best of this Fall/Winter with profiles on Will Benedict; Air Afrique; Atticus Torre; Documenting The Nameplate; Maggie Dunlap; Marnie Weber; Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel; Ana Benaroya; Emma DJ; Rayon Vert; Amphetamine Sulphate; Dean Sameshima; Roe Ethridge; Josiane M. H. Pozi; Atiéna R. Kilfa; Ulysses Jenkins; Stacey Leigh; and Stephanie LaCava.

This issue comes with a zine dedicated to BIO/VERSE, a collaborative project between Perks and Mini (PAM), PUMA, and the DEEP BioData Platform, which expands on the biodiversity of the wild and vulnerable ecosystem of the Western Brazilian Amazon.