We’re excited to see Eastern European artists and publications featured at international festivals more and more every year. We recently had the pleasure of attending and supporting Fanzineist Art Book and Zine Festival which featured a vast variety of publications in a range of formats – from shoe (yes, shoe), to cassette tape and foam glove.
Featuring around 1000 zines from over 30 countries, Fanzineist took over Semper Depot in the centre of Vienna with support from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. We heard this exciting festival which has been going from 2016, staring in Istanbul and brough to Vienna by Denis Beser, being called ‘the most exciting event in Vienna for contemporary artists’. Publishers from all over the world gathered here for 3 days of art, music, workshops and celebration.
Among them were: The Secret Garden – Romania Tsst Collective – Georgia Vera Koss – Prague / Russia Karloina Krol – Poland Jakub Mikuláštík – Czech Republic LPG Zine Lab – Poland Nina Izycka – Poland / Spain Riso and Friends – Croatia Pangolin – Croatia Hurma – Russia Bored Wolves – Poland Bizarium – Poland Šimpe Pisár – Slovakia
From fortune-telling handmade mini-books to made-from-scratch paper notebooks, folding posters, zines, prints and textiles – the festival was buzzing with excitement at the historic location in the centre of town. Visited by over a thousand people over the course of the three-day weekend, Fanzineist also brought talks and workshops on bookbinding, zine making and collectivising from across the globe, as well as an exhibition of zine submissions upstairs mailed in over the course of several months prior to the festival.
Participants and visitors alike told us that this is one of the most exciting events they have been to all year, bringing emerging and established artists and accessible to all. Those from Vienna highlighted that it is the main opportunity for independent artists who don’t have institutional representation to come together, exchange knowledge and skills, meet other artists and mingle with the creative community at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Founder Deniz Beser has been running Fanzineist since 2016. Having started it in Istanbul and brought it to Vienna, Deniz works year round to produce a bigger and better Fanzineist each year, securing funding and finding partially volunteer-based teams to make it all happen.
The concert programme celebrates the multicultural community in Vienna just like the exhibition programme, Deniz brought musicians from Turkey, Eastern Europe, and beyond to the stage at Semper Depot, so as you walked the art fair, people danced and sang in many different languages.
Fanzineist is definitely one of the core events placing Vienna among the creative hubs in Europe. Historically the city has been ‘the gateway to Eastern Europe’ so this festival truly brought together a wide range of brilliant creatives from the region. We’re really excited to see what comes next, and having spoken to Deniz we are hoping for a more permanent version of the Fanzineist library and archives to come very soon.
To keep up with all things Fanzineist, visit the website www.fanzineist.com
