04 Nov 2016

mezosfera.org: tranzit. hu's new international magazine on art and culture

tranzit. hu's new international magazine on art and culture has launched its second thematic issue titled Inside the Mezosfera.

mezosfera.org is an international magazine on art and culture published and edited by tranzit. hu in Budapest. The magazine, on the one hand, is a platform for the sharing of knowledge and the building of solidarity: while also connecting with other non-central geopolitical regions of the world, it initiates dialogues mainly among the art and cultural scenes of the region described as Eastern Europe. It endeavors to discuss how this region with a common but locally varied communist past confronts the influence of both global and local socio-political turbulences. On the other hand, mezosfera.org also endeavors to mediate these local and regional discourses to a broader, international audience. mezosfera.org is launched with two columns. 'Magazine' covers (art)works and initiations of contemporary culture in Eastern Europe and beyond. 'Artwork in Focus' is a series of short essays within the Magazine column that introduces one particular artwork as personal choice of the author. 'Issue' is a thematic column, appearing four times a year, which is compiled each time by a guest editor. Our guest editors are invited to collaborate with authors from different countries, regions, and backgrounds to discuss issues that are relevant and urgent within the cultural field of Eastern Europe.

Issue # 2
Inside the Mezosfera
With contributions by Lóránt Bódi, Vlad Morariu, Jan Sowa, Nora Sternfeld, and Ana Vujanović
Edited by Nikolett Erőss and Eszter Szakács

Published September 2016

The latest issue of mezosfera.org takes on the interpretive exercise of delineating what the notion of mezosfera comprises. Taking the mesosphere layer of the Earth's atmosphere as a metaphorical point of departure, the magazine mezosfera.org—with a fictitious 'pan-Eastern European spelling'—sets out to look at, connect, and engage initiatives from various environments that can be conceived, among others, as working in the middle ground, in the mezosfera layer of our contemporary art and cultural world, in-between grassroots and institutionalized practices. As a horizontal, non-hierarchal network of initiatives that is more attentive to density than to growth, the mezosfera is also put forth as a discursive space to envision cultural and social practices that are capable of raising and amplifying issues that remain outside of the scope of traditional art contexts. The invited contributors, mostly from a Central-Eastern European context, foreground various strategies and instances of locally- and politically-embedded work, often in rapidly shifting environments. The texts investigate the notions of independence, unlearning, unacademia, walking theory, and resistance, also through their manifestations in practice.

See more: mezosfera.org/category/2-inside-the-mezosfera/


Issue # 1
A Weird Geography
With contributions by augenauf, Laura Avram, Bogdan Droma, Ruth Eisenrieich, Núria Güell, Marina Naprushkina, Ovidiu Pop, Protest Productions Collective, Katarzyna Winiecka/Border Crossing & You, Andrei Yakimov & Olga Zhitlina
Edited by Katalin Erdődi

Published April 2016

The thematic issue A Weird Geography explores the topics of migration, solidarity, and political engagement through artistic and activist practices. Taking the current polemic developments in European asylum and migration politics as its point of departure, it addresses overarching key issues, from the crisis of citizenship and the challenges of a post-identity politics to the unequal access to rights and privileges that pervades all phases of the migration experience from the freedom of movement to the right to work. It also critically examines the recent 'wave of solidarity' and its discontents, from humanitarian relief work and political activism to escape aid, human smuggling, and the increasing criminalization of solidarity.

See more: mezosfera.org/category/a-weird-geography/


tranzit. hu is a contemporary art program running in Budapest since 2005 as part of the Central-Eastern European tranzit. org network. It creates platforms for discursive, research, and publication projects, and initiates collaborations on both international and local levels.
hu.tranzit.org/

ERSTE Foundation is main partner of tranzit