The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Wednesday October 2nd — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Wednesday October 2nd — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Wednesday October 2nd — —

Modern Matter 05

We really like the 5th issue of Modern Matter which was created around the concept of stellar. This is a homonym for its cover star, Stella Tennant on the first place, but is also a word to describe her. ‘The interior space of a magazine is defined, by and large, by its writers, its artists and its photographers, while the outer space is often defined by a cover model. Here, Stella Tennant, iconic, playful, a born performer, and above all, independent, embodies the interior and the ethos of Modern Matter magazine, in its first truly unisex issue.’

A strong commercial prospect, despite resembling nothing and nobody else on the market, Tennant represents an intersection of the popular and the artistic, or the alternative; the masculine and the feminine; the British and the international. Photographed for Modern Matter by Mark Borthwick, she is something as they state themselves: “like a star, as in brilliance.” The issue also features: Mark Leckey on ambition, dumb things, and doing battle with YouTube commenters. Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Tobias Rehberger about scale, the Bar Oppenheimer, and the ingredients of the elusive vodka stein.

The issue also features an exploration of the purpose of art in the year 2013, including interviews with Beatrix Ruf and Helen Marten, and work by Paul McCarthy, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Jim Lambie. It finally also shares a retrospective of British magazine AMBIT’s Invisible Years series and a conversation with Dazed & Confused founder Jefferson Hack.

Make sure to buy the issue online!