Welcome to Kaleidoscope’s #23 (Winter 2015). Following the recent, successful redesign by Bureau Mirko Borsche, we are back with a brand new issue. The new formula is taking shape, new columnists and contributors are joining our ranks, and a lot of enthusiastic research went into curating the most compelling content out there.

In the opening section of HIGHLIGHTS, twelve profiles account for the best of the season: JASON MATTHEW LEE (by Alexander Shulan), DANIEL BAUMANN (by Aoife Rosenmeyer), MARYLIN MINTER (by Gianni Jetzer), MAGALI REUS (by Ruba Katrib), KNOW WAVE RADIO (by Alexandre Stipanovich), BEATRICE GIBSON (by George Vasey), CATHERINE AHEARN (by Tobias Czudej), K-HOLE (by Kevin McGarry), JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI (by Joshua Abelow), ALESSANDRO BAVA (by Francesco Garutti), ZHAO YAO (by Venus Lau), and IDEA BOOKS (by Xerxes Cook).

At a time when feminism resurges both in critical discourse and media headlines, while at the same time entering a list of words overdue to be banned, our signature MAIN THEME section is devoted to a reconsideration of female identities and role models. POST WOMAN is composed of a think tank, a think piece by Natasha Stagg and five interviews, including with Juliana Huxtable (by Andrew Durbin), Amalia Ulman (by Francesca Gavin), Judith Bernstein (by Hanne Mugaas), Massimiliano Gioni on “La Mamma” (with Pietro Rigolo), and Girls Like Us (by Felix Burrichter).

To follow, this issue’s MONO section and cover story are dedicated to Norwegian artist IDA EKBLAD. Fueled by an outright marvel for this thing called art, her work is distinguished by an extreme degree of impatience and prolificness. Her shift and turns are the result of a feverish engagement with pure materiality, synthesized with popular culture and animated by alien transformations. This definitive monographic survey comprises an essay by Peter J. Amdam, an interview by Cory Arcangel and an original portrait by Sølve Sundsbø.

Later on, the VISIONS section invites the eye to an enthralling journey across almost 100 pages of visual contributions by artists, curators and image-makers, including: TOBIAS ZIELONY, “Jenny Jenny”; MR.; “Chicago”: BARBARA CRANE and TONY LEWIS; DAVID DOUARD in Los Angeles; JONAS WOOD; “Alliantecnik,” curated by Alessio Ascari; TIMUR SI-QIN, “Premier Machinic Funerary”; and GRAHAM LITTLE.

KALEIDOSCOPE Issue 18 (summer 2013), highlighting Andra Ursuta, Shanzhai Biennial, Sergei Tcherepnin, Yngve Holen and Petrit Halilaj; investigating an updated notion of materiality; exploring the curatorial practice of Massimiliano Gioni; featuring our regulars, tips, and three special inserts.

HIGHLIGHTS
The issue’s opening section of HIGHLIGHTS features Andra Ursuta, whose practice is understood by Joanna Fiduccia as committed to annihilating sculpture’s distance from our world; the fashion-label-cum-art-project Shanzhai Biennial, whose tangible products, explains Kevin McGarry, are eclipsed by their collateral evidence; Sergei Tcherepnin, described by Lawrence Kumpf as creating a complex system of bodily configurations and social situations; Yngve Holen, whose works are read by Pablo Larios as sentient beings concerned with frustrated circulation, technological growth and associative networking; and Petrit Halilaj whose practice is framed by Elena Filipovic as rejecting pathos in favor of an intimate and critical inflection of the political.

MAIN THEME
This section, titled Post-i-Meta-Hyper-Materiality, brings together a substantial group of artists who introduce the concept of emotional and bodily alienation within the discourse dominated by the readymade, corporate art pursued by many of their digital-native peers. The elusive sculptural works of Nicholas Deshayes, Steve Bishop, Marlie Mul, Magali Reus, Ben Schumacher and Alice Channer are framed by Karen Archey as deeply engaged with materiality and production processes and imbued with bodily allusions, while also commenting on issues of abstraction, dispersion, consumption and technology. A visual essay curated by fashion futurologist Veronica So reveals how, from sculptures designed by digital simulations to edible candies formed by human body scans, the appearance of 3D printing kicks off a range of playful experiments with technology and originality. Also in this section, Alice Channer talks to Rebecca Geldard about the starting point of each work, which she describes as “a moment of material seduction”; and artists Pamela Rosenkratz and Alisa Baremboym discuss physicality versus technology and the shifting boundaries between our bodies and the external world in a cross-interview by Ruba Katrib.

MONO
Comprising an essay by Jonathan Griffin, an interview by Francesco Manacorda and a photographic portrait by Ari Marcopoulos, this issue’s MONO is devoted to the Director of the International Art Exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale, Massimiliano Gioni. Pragmatic bordering on opportunistic throughout his adventurous career, and yet described as “a hopeless romantic” by one of his most affectionate colleagues, Gioni states that his own failure to understand is what fuels his interest in art. Generally averse to chronological or historically comprehensive presentations and departing from the tautology of the masterpiece, he is instead a proponent of Outsider and self-taught art. His exhibitions, which he defines as products of a collective intelligence, are often concerned with the position of art within our image-based society, as well as the sites of an exploration of interior worlds, dream states and psychological visions.

REGULARS
Finally, it this issue’s REGULARS, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets interview emerging artist Amalia Ulman; Gary Carrion-Murayari stages a three-way interview with Valentin Carron and Isabelle Cornaro; Felix Burrichter meets design critic Alice Rawsthorn; Leung Chi Wo, David Clarke and Lam Tung-pang engage in a round table about the art scene in Hong Kong then and now; finally, Laura McLean-Ferristraces the legacy of folk in British contemporary art from the exhibition Black Eyes and Lemonade to the practice of Jeremy Deller.

SPECIAL INSERTS
The edition is enriched by our seasonal TIPS on following, reading, listening, stopping by, meeting and visiting; as well as by three SPECIAL INSERTS, including a selection of paintings by Benjamin Senior, photographs by Jochen Lempert and collages by Sterling Ruby.