Side Magazine #5 – The Tourist

The fifth issue of Side Magazine accompanies the tourist on their quest for souvenirs. While being accused of fueling superficial consumerism, the tourist follows their sincere desire to find meaning, placing themself, all senses hyper¬alert, in unusual situations to capture memories. Abdelmajid Arrif takes us to a Territory of Misunderstandings, Marrakech’s famous Jemaa el-Fna square; Saint Augustine analyses in his Confessions, written towards the end of the fourth century, the governing mechanisms of his own memories; Daniel Buren’s text from 1988 reminds us of the difference between the photograph of a work and the work itself; Maggie Popkin reflects on the phenomenon of souvenirs; Xavier de Maistre’s presentation of his room from 1794 is interweaved with those of the artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster; and Moses März refers to Edouard Glissant’s Poetics of Relation to explore the issues of borders, migration, and political communities in contemporary Germany; Finally, Ida Lødemel Tvedt reflects on her relationship to her hometown through the lens of Ragnar Kjartansson’s monumental sculpture which no traveler arriving by plane can miss, asking: BERGEN? Side Magazine is conceived of as a site of research, each issue giving shape to one of the seven characters that will be staged at Bergen Assembly in 2022, convened by artist Saâdane Afif.