20 Sep Safar #4
There is absolutely nothing wrong with wallowing in the past. But when this imaginary state of mind is instrumentalized for political purposes, nostalgia turns into an ambiguous, dangerous weapon. Safar, the bi-lingual Libanese magazine for graphic design and visual culture, does not make a fuss of illuminating the abysses of nostalgia. Far from fetishizing willingly selected histographies – which not seldom turn into superficial trends while promoting reductive interpretations – the latest issue brings a radical honest and critical perspective into play when it comes to the new hype of brutalism, symbolic practices which are primarily used to manipulate cultural identities or, how Beirut-based drag queen RuPaul finally found cultural belonging thanks to the affects of nostalgia. Thinking back, we really missed something on our shelves before Safar #4 dropped in!