Afterall
Ensemble
‘The quarterly media magazine AS, which has already existed since 1978 and until 1999 was called Andere Sinema, was the flagship of the various reflective activities the M HKA aimed to establish. It was intended to be a platform and a laboratory for the development of a critical discourse concerning contemporary visual culture and covered not only the traditional fields of film, video, television and art, but also the broad range of visual technology and image-creation that enable the ‘visualisation’ of society as a whole.’
The last issue of AS appeared in September 2007. The M HKA, which had published the magazine since 2003, effected a merger with the English magazine Afterall.
Since then, the M HKA has been the co-publisher of the six-monthly international art magazine Afterall, which was launched by the curator Charles Esche and artist Mark Lewis in London in 1999. It is conveniently described as ‘A Journal of Art, Context and Enquiry’, and the resounding enthusiasm for research and enquiry it expresses link up seamlessly with the critical view of art that the M HKA has adhered to for a long time.
The backbone of each issue of Afterall is always made up of monographic essays – two pieces devoted to the work of four artists, who have recently included Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Jill Magid, Otobong Nkanga and also Panamarenko. But each issue of the magazine also contains two other voluminous essays and three focused views on art and cultural history that provide the necessary counterbalance to this monographic focus – individual artistic practice as the main principle of the contemporary art scene. In these essays, which cover a wide range of subjects, Afterall makes room for a reflective approach to contemporary visual culture in general.
