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Livraison

livraison

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Rhinocéros

Revue d'art contemporain contemporary arts journal

Livraison -rhinoceros as a contemporary arts magazine -is an exhibition space. Livraison, among other activities by rhinoceros, may be understood as a space for confrontation and translation, at several levels: a publication that became -more or less by chance -bilingual; contemporary arts journal in which many contributions are not usually thought of as belonging to art; graphic reinterpretations; blurring of categories - each issue is simultaneously a magazine, a book, an exhibition and its catalogue - a little factory producing difference.

Strasbourg, France

18 Rue de stosswihr, 67100

Email: info@r-livraison.org

Category: Art
Periodicity: Bi-Annual
Language: French / English
Format: 165 x 240 mm
Price: 13 €
Web: http://www.r-livraison.org

Exclusive Interview

space and freedom, for contributing artists — and for us

What is your magazine about?
Livraison — rhinoceros as a contemporary arts magazine — is an exhibition space. Livraison, among other activities by rhinoceros, may be understood as a space for confrontation and translation, at several levels: a publication that became — more or less by chance — bilingual; contemporary arts journal in which many contributions are not usually thought of as belonging to art; graphic reinterpretations; blurring of categories — each issue is simultaneously a magazine, a book, an exhibition and its catalogue — a little factory producing difference. Livraison is not a commercial publication (no profits are made), and is independent of any commercial, official or academic structure (we do have occasional partnerships with some, but, somehow, publication of research in contemporary visual arts does not seem to be a priority for French universities). Livraison participates in the ongoing debate of visual culture - and its consequences.

Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Livraison is published by rhinoceros, an independent, artist and writer-run non-profit organization based in Strasbourg, France. Started in 1996 as a part-time contemporary art exhibition space, rhinoceros concentrates now on mediation, public events and publishing. rhinoceros — as a collective, does not speak in one voice or one language. Unlike the traditional collectives of modernity, rhinoceros does not act according to any common program that would have been previously defined by some sort of manifesto. So rhinoceros has every good reason to be interested in art as an encounter, as it is the core of its activity. Most of us are artists, but the group (6/7 persons) also includes graphic designers and writers. We don\'t always agree with each other, but we all believe in the usefulness of space for discussion, for experiences that do not have the opportunity do develop elsewhere.

How do you produce one issue?
By trying to make sense and give some kind of possible shape to the chaos surrounding us... The basic idea is that each issue focuses on a specific question, and is directed by a different person — invited by rhinoceros — who acts as a curator. after having agreed on the project\'s baseline, the curator and rhinoceros both contact potential contributors — who are offered an average of 5 to 6 pages, more or less, according to the needs of their project — and each contribution is individually discussed. When most of the material has been gathered, we then start the conception of the layout (sometimes it is a contribution in itself). Nothing is ever stable, and we are each time starting everything over from the beginning.

How much time do you spend on it?
A lot. Working this way means a rather lengthy process. So we usually are working at several issues at the same time. An other aspect is that, as Livraison does not make any benefits, there are no salaries either. So we all have full time jobs besides.

How big is your team?
Small. rhinoceros is run by 6 or 7 persons, but involved at different degrees, and not everybody takes part in every project. So it could be said that the average issue of Livraison is made mainly by 3 people, plus the invited curator. And this includes layout, translations, proofreading, distribution, press releases, sales... But, despite that, we do make a point of meeting high quality professional standards (we are professionals, even if we make our living working for others).

What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Making it, for a start. There have been some important changes, such as turning bilingual, but as each issue is a specific project, it could be said that anything we do is another step. Sometimes, these are answers to side problems we meet. For instance, as we did not have a distributor, we had to build our own distribution platform (http://www.r-diffusion.org).

Which are the key incredients for the success of your magazine?
Probably space and freedom, for contributing artists — and for us. As said before, Livraison is an exhibition space on paper. We usually ask for new works, specifically made for this context. This means that we invite artists (or writers, designers, illustrators, architects,...) without knowing in advance what they will be submitting. It may be the opportunity to try something risky, and we are often surprised. The other aspect is the confrontation of various statements from different points of view on a similar issue. Gathering them side by side, then shaking the whole thing, produces interesting echoes.

What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
Time and money, as usual. We would appreciate an increase of our sales... This is important, but perhaps not the main thing — publications like ours and may others are unlikely to make a lot of money, and we know it (still, it would be nice). First of all, we wish to be useful, and discussed, which involves being read (and reading others) as widely as possible. We have a rather positive feedback (of course, when it comes down to taking a subscription, we sometimes wonder where all that crowd disappeared) given the fact that Livraison is not always seaching for consensus. What we need is discussion. It is often heard in the relatively small art world, especially in France where we are based, that there is too little initiative. But when something shows up, the first reaction of a large part of the art establishment is to ignore it, especially if it blurs the usual established categories that are still very structurally strong, here. The art establishment is not especially our target, we do what we do because we think it may help opening a debate, raising issues, having people meet. At times, it seems that well established organizations have little interest in independent projects that can not be completely controlled. Sometimes they do.

Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
Still existing, circulating. rhinoceros has many projects: publishing Livraison, publishing books (r-editions), distributing independent publications of contemporary art (r-diffusion), dispatching free art press (eventaire: www.r-eventaire.org), organizing or participating in public events... Many other possibilities are being discussed, but we only start a new project if we feel we can handle it, and keep it going on in the long term. As we do not always have enough time (and money), choices have to be done about what projects we are most interested in. Hopefully, Livraison will stay one of those.

Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Livraison is a contemporary arts magazine, so it could be assumed that our audience is mainly of people working or interested in art. But we do not publish reviews, and we are not doing a news magazine, so it is probably not the best way to update information. Art is our background, not especially our subject matter. We believe that contemporary art can only make sense if it is connected to the \"real\" world, and also that it has widened so much that it is now able to address nearly anything. Each issue of Livraison is organized around a key question, and contributors submit works that come from very different directions. So it should be possible for anyone that feels concerned with displacements (#4), alternative technology (#5), dark energy (#6), fragmentation (#7, Sept. 2006), or translation (#8, winter 06/07), to pick out something interesting.

Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy? What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
In our case, we never would have started this if we were not independent. Occasionally, we have been facing pressures to be more \"local\", or more \"French\", or to fit better in funding programs, but if institutions and corporations really knew what they wanted, they could do it themselves — they do not need us. Livraison exists because we felt it was missing. So we do get some public funding, and a little advertisements, but without letting it interfere with the content. Advertisement space is sold once the layout is nearly finished, and at that time it is too late to change anything. In an early issue, we required to do all the graphics of all the advertisements ourselves. Surprisingly, it worked... once. Relationships with subscribers, donators, officials, advertisers, are to be experimented. The fact of being independent is not always comfortable, but it is a guarantee for editorial freedom — and we earn that freedom with our work.

Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
Readers do as they wish. TV and magazines are not alternatives. They work quite differently. For instance, TV is time-based, whereas a magazine can be read at any speed and in any sequence. Webzines may be an interesting option, but reading from a screen is tiresome, and the qualities of color and texture are of course quite different. rhinoceros remains very attached to paper, and to the manipulation of a physical object. It does not keep us from building websites besides — but those are very different projects, with different possibilities and limitations.

Which is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
We are very careful about printing. As a small organization, the printing costs are important, but we do not want to make any compromise about quality. As we do not use the usual glossy magazine paper, the printer has to customize his procedures. If possible, we prefer working with a local printer, so that we may control every stage of the printing process. An ideal printer will do exactly what we want, for a decent price.

Which magazines did influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
We started Livraison as a space for works and statements, rather than for what usually qualifies as press articles (news, reviews, commentary...). So we were perhaps more influenced by artworks, exhibitions, books, events, and a wide variety of situations, than merely just magazines. There are a lot of excellent art magazines (and we read them), so it would not have made much sense trying to do the same. The organization of each issue around a key theme is not new — see Esse, Parachute, or others — but that structure may also be found in group exhibitions. On the other hand, Livraison is not a virtual catalog for a non-existing exhibition: all works have been designed for print, and we consider and treat a piece of writing or a comic strip in the same way as pictures. Livraison hopes to be complementary with other existing publications, and we have good relationships with many of them. Besides that, we also wish to question the limits of what a magazine may be — for instance, we have lately been discussing the idea of making an issue that would in fact be an installation, displaying the editorial content in three-dimensional space...

What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
At that time, we were proud of having been able to do it. To a certain extent, we still are. Of course, there are things we would not do anymore, or not in the same way. Since then, we always left open the possibility of changing everything for each issue. Issue #1 was meant to be one project, not necessarily a model for the next ones. But it did help us to define our priorities, and to become more efficient.

What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
Usually, the answer to that shows up in the next issue.

How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
Quite a lot, and even more since we started distributing them. We are good customers. We may not own the places we live in, but they are full of bookshelves (and wastebaskets, too). Is that being maniacs? E-mail interview from “28.08.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)