HOOP DOOP MAGAZINE #19 by HOOP DOOP MAGAZINE

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Colofon EDITOR IN CHIEF Attilio Brancaccio ART DIRECTOR & DESIGN Attilio Brancaccio EDITORS Agnese Roda Anna Kelhu BLOG EDITOR Monyart CONTRIBUTING FEATURES EDITOR Alex Kitàin Sarah-Jane Threipland Myscha Oréo Ioannis Alvanopoulos Monyart Jenneke van Bakel CREATIVE DIRECTORS Myscha Oréo Attilio Brancaccio FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHERS

Sander Dekker Attilio Brancaccio Myscha Oréo Monyart

Sound made when transitioning from a sitting to a standing position. photo: Sander Dekker

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contents

P6 • SANDER DEKKER • Cover Story

P60 • REMIX • fashion editorial

P24 • HOOP DOOP MEETS: JULIANNA BARWICK • music

P76 • WORLD DESIGN CAPITAL- HELSINKI 2012 • design

P32 •THE MAGICAL WORLD OF MANDY SMITH • art

P86 • HOOP DOOP MEETS FUSEE DOREE • music

P46 • the BIG PICTURE • by Mark Janicello

P92 • Oskar Fischinger - EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMATIC ABSTRACTIONS • art

P50 • LIVORNESI AL MARE • by Attilio Brancaccio

cover story

sander dekker

I’m just browsing through life interview: Myscha Oréo & Ioannis Alvanopoulos words: Ioannis Alvanopoulos photography: Myscha Oréo

You will usually find Sander Dekker in Amsterdam. According to him “there are too many beautiful and crazy people around here to shoot”. Other favorite locations are London and New York City. Since May 2012, The Amsterdam Walls gallery hosts exhibitions of his work while in September he signed with the Pim Thomassen Agency. An image of Sander Dekker lands on your cornea. It flirts with your pupil for a while before grabbing a cab on the long highway towards your neural links at the back of your head. It’s the moment that your brain speechlessly screams “rock ‘n’ roll”. And “cool”, “sexy”, “hey that’s nice” along with many other short phrases that you never really heard. Yes, this is how rock ‘n’ roll would develop if the 80s and the 90s didn’t decide to interrupt so rudely.

photo: Myscha Oréo

Sander’s work exposes everybody’s inner – and sometimes secret – need to do what’s usually overlooked in life: crawl on the floor, seduce the statue in the living room, show their teeth to the world, run, jump, scream and literally have fun! And it’s exactly that element of fun that defines the realism of his style. “Keep it cool, simple and real”, you will often hear him say and it looks like it’s working. And then you meet Sander Dekker for an interview. You’ve done your preparation and you bring along the necessary booze: prerequisite to loosen things up and trick him with nasty questions. You enter the apartment and the guy orders a soda. “Damn it, that was not expected”, you think. It takes about 20 minutes and about three sentences to understand that you didn’t have to do anything to cool this one down. He’s just cool by default. 8

An interview with Sander Dekker. Realism, rock ‘n’ roll, cool pictures and the misinterpreted erotic style of a non-erotic photographer. Some of your photos look like snapshots from porn movies. I always search for things that can shock people. Crazy poses with legs spread but still fashionable. So you can basically see everything but not really the dirty details. I’m not asking it though from the girls. I basically let them do whatever they want and I follow them with the camera. They can just roll over the couch and if they have their legs spread then you can have a “pornish” kind of shot but it’s not intentionally. It’s wild with some sexual tension but that’s basically it. It’s like innocent porn. Actually it is. I always hate it when people call me an erotic photographer. Cause I’m not. I just capture the people in their own environment. Of course I like it when they wear less because it’s also cooler. They show a bit more of themselves. You get to shoot the actual model. The actual girl or guy. Why provocative shoots? I try to move away for the magazine stiffness and attract attention at the same time. To provoke helps to stand out next to other photographers. When you look at the magazines it’s either forced or just plain fake. There is just not much of it and I think it’s something way more interesting to look at. Is there a limit? For me no. Probably in some paid jobs then yeah there may be a limit. Or if I’m going to publish it in a magazine yes there are also limits. But for me no. For me there are no limits. If it’s a cool picture, it’s a cool picture. Do you ever get sexually attracted to your models? Actually, no. Everybody probably thinks that I do but I don’t. I like the pictures that I’m making. It’s only while editing after a photo shoot that I catch myself looking at the pictures saying “oh god she’s so hot, unbelievable”. Maybe I’m more in love with making the picture than with what people are in real life. A camera in the middle

functions like a wall. How does it work from inspiration to idea, then preparation and the actual photoshoot? Well, it’s nothing like that. I’ve often never met the model before. I just give them a call like “can I shoot at your place?” and then it actually happens. I don’t know where they live, I don’t know how they are in real life. The shoot takes usually two hours and that’s it. Do you do something to prepare the model? Nothing. No stylist. No make-up artist. No light specialist. I look into their closet, take everything out that I like and we choose. If I spot something cool in their living room I use it. It’s all just in the moment. I get there with my camera and my bag – without knowing anything – and that’s it. We just sit down, have a drink and then we go. As spontaneous as it can be. Not even mentally? Not really. I don’t even use mood boards. It all depends on the model, the location and then it just happens. I look around and think “that’s cool, let’s do this, let’s do that, eat the plant, roll over on the floor.” It sounds like pure fun. It is. That’s what you can see in the picture. Nothing is forced. Nothing is thought of beforehand. This is why the fun element is always in the picture. It’s not like a flat simple sexual picture but there’s always that rock ‘n’ roll style and sense of humor. Is the experience different per person? Usually a person should be creating a different stimulus. Yes. Amsterdam is full of crazy people. It only happened once or twice that the model thought “it’s too much”. I can feel it already in advance if it’s going to work or not or if I have any doubts but usually it’s not the case. It’s a small city with a lot of great models. They also know what to expect when they are shooting with me.

Can you photograph someone you don’t like? That’s actually harder. I cannot do that. I usually see pretty easily if I have a connection with somebody. Some people don’t do nudity but they will tell me beforehand. But I don’t do nude in all of my pictures so I don’t expect it. Models are sometimes reluctant stating “I want to shoot with you but I don’t do nude”. Though when you see my pictures there’s not that much nudity in it. Most people expect “If you go with Sander you gotta show everything you got”. I don’t care. What inspires you? It’s not one thing. It can be many. The location where I am at that moment. The model. The fun stuff that they have in their house. I read somewhere that you are not an artist. Or you’re not sure if you’re an artist yet. It’s only six months ago that I quit my job and I started focusing more on photography. I guess from that point on you’re really an artist. It was not an actual choice. I have a lot of free time on my hands, do whatever/ wherever it pleases me and hardly say no to a good drink. So that’s why probably I’m an artist now. How did photography enter your life? It was actually three years ago. I bought a cool camera, got to know how it works and gave it a shot. I started doing photo shoots with some nice girls. I even bought the lights and the equipment I needed in order to make cool pictures. In the beginning I tried to be prepared for everything. I did all that photography stuff like making mood boards, finding locations, arranging make-up artists and stylists. After a while I said to myself “that sucks”. It’s really hard to be moving around all this equipment and set it up. It takes the energy away from everyone. I came to the conclusion to keep it very simple. So I just put the compact flash on my camera and that was it. Then I found my way, it really worked. This was about a year ago and from that point it really exploded.

“If you go with Sander you gotta show everything you got”

What is your personal goal? I don’t have a specific goal. I wanted to sign with an agency, which I recently did. I’m part of the in house represented artists of a gallery for a whole year so that’s also done. Publications are also very cool and flattering but it usually happens without me focusing on it. A new goal is to start working officially in London because it’s a cool place and provides quite some potential for growth. There is not really one big goal in the far future that I need to reach. It’s more like small steps that I want to achieve each time and see how far I can get. You have a strong personal style that is reflected in your work. People can recognize my pictures. And that’s what’s becoming more difficult when you look at fashion photography. All the Vogue-kind of shoots? I can never see who made the pictures. You can recognize the stylist, the models but the photographers are almost on the same spectrum. What I want to achieve is to have a photo book that breathes and it’s mine. It’s your soul on the table and every picture should really say that it’s you and not just anybody. It’s more valuable for

the book and more flattering for the artist. Do you Photoshop your pictures? I try to keep it as raw as possible. Even if there are a couple of hairs coming out, I just keep them in. What other photographers do you like? Terry Richardson in one of my examples. I don’t necessarily think he’s amazing or really good but the way that he’s working is great. He started making horrible porn pictures of himself with the most shabby looking girls and just all crazy stuff – he did whatever he wanted. But he continued and somehow he went big and became a brand. Now he’s shooting for Vogue. I like this attitude and I love what he did. Maybe I like his passion even more than his pictures. All the people at the beginning are going to say “you’ll never going to make it like this”. But I say stick to it. Don’t sell out. Become your own brand, your own label. Dido Fontana is also a photographer that I like a lot. I always get a cool feeling by the rawness of his pictures and I love the relative absence of models. I kind of look up to that because I use models a lot, which is easier for making cool pictures. But he just makes the really raw stuff

and still cool and suitable for magazines or for people that want them to be printed. Is there someone on this planet that you would really love to photograph? No. I don’t really care. I could say Kate Moss but it’s not going to be true. I also don’t think this way. I don’t watch a lot of TV. A big movie star? Why would I want to shoot him or her. There are a lot of cooler people here that I could shoot. Promotional wise it’s probably better but it’s not like a goal I have to achieve. But maybe I’m already doing it. I could be shooting people now that will become famous 30 years from now. In that’s way it’s cooler since you help each other out. Do you print your photos in a limited edition? Yes. Ten pieces. I’m not really in it for selling. Seven or eight months ago when I first brought my work to Walls gallery they asked me how much money I wanted for the prints. I didn’t know and I was the only one with the “no price” label in the gallery. I thought of picking up all my prints after the exhibition, throw them in the

trash and put up on Twitter “If you want prints of my work you can find it in the trashcan around the corner”.

to compromise. I think you lose a lot of passion if you compromise or do it only for the money. Then it’s just a job.

Tell us about “Happy Ending” In May I decided to do my solo show. It was called “Happy Ending”. I was given a 55 hours gallery slot, but I started to build the work within those 55 hours. Sort of a countdown. So I had a big clock and put the 55 hours on. I invited everybody but most people for the ending. The “Happy Ending”. All the people came in the last three hours and there was this big clock that nobody knew about. One hour before the end of the countdown I announced: “when the clock reaches 0 you can just take anything from the wall that you like, because everything is for free!”. People went crazy and started guarding the wall to protect the prints that they wanted to take home.

What’s your favorite picture? I don’t have a favorite picture. I’m always into the new stuff. I used to do more close-ups and now I’m experimenting more with the environment. I don’t have a personal favorite.

Commercial work or your own flow? I want to do both. I want to do what I like for a commercial assignment. The last assignment that I did was for Men at Work. They know what I do so they asked me to book the models, select their clothing and do whatever I like. I don’t want

Favorite model? Also not. No muse. You say that you live in “worry free state of mind”. Are you human? Yes I got a pulse and everything. I don’t buy it from the pulse. So you sweat, you sleep, you eat you drink, right? How do you make it then? (Laugh) By not letting anything get to you. No stress. Never care much about what you’re doing. That is also reflected in the setting of meeting a model in an unknown location just a few moments before I start shooting. I don’t prepare. If nothing comes out of it, then we just

got… nothing. When you live in this mode, life becomes easier and more spontaneous. I always have a small camera with me and it doesn’t matter what happens I just jump in and make a picture of it. I’m just browsing through life. Describe freedom. It’s exactly what I do now. Do whatever you want. That’s the most you can get in terms of freedom. Do not compromise. I think that’s the ultimate freedom. If money didn’t matter what would you do? Nothing much different since it doesn’t matter. If I were in it for the money, it would be a stupid mistake. You can see more of Sander Dekker at www.mynameissanderdekker.com hwalls.nl/kunstenaars/sander-dekker. html

“ For me there are no limits. If it’s a cool picture, it’s a cool picture.”

“ As spontaneous as it can be.”

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hoop doop meets

Julianna Barwick

Brooklyn’s one-woman choir is charming our ears Interview by Alex Kitain • Photo: by Jody Rogac , © Jody Rogac

Julianna Barwick has been creating wonderful sounds in weird places ever since she was a little girl. These days she packs them onto albums and tours the world for all of us to hear. The only thing she is not such a fan of is writing lyrics, as she tells Alex Kitain on a park bench in Utrecht before debuting at the Le Guess Who festival. You know what’s so totally strange? I took a shower at my hotel room earlier and as I was sitting down to pull on my tights I noticed that the chair was wet. Maybe you had hadn’t dried yourself properly? No I was definitely dry. Isn’t that just really weird? Sorry for sharing my personal weirdness with you, haha. Ehm, that’s totally cool. I love personal weirdness! Aaaanyway. So, tonight’s your last gig of the tour. Are you relieved? Shitting yourself? Mega excited? I am definitely relieved. The last few days have been super intense. I played like 10 shows in 12 days. I know other people tour way harder than that but at my pace, that’s a lot. I’m also super excited because this is my booking agent Bob’s festival and I lurrrvvv him and it’s my first time in Utrecht. My husband and I are actually staying until Sunday so we can catch some of my friends’ performances tomorrow. So, yeah. I’m excited. Luckily, I don’t get nervous before shows. Wow, that’s a good skill to have. Other people get absolutely terrified before going on stage. I heard Adele even has a little puke sometimes. I know right? I can’t imagine that. Touring alone is so stressful already if I had to fight crippling stage fright before each show, I’d be a wreck. When you’re on tour, is it important for you to connect with your surroundings? I don’t want to say no but at the same time you’re in a place so briefly, you really don’t get much of a chance to truly connect. I mean last night I played in Riga and of course I’ve never been there before. It was like a winter wonderland but I literally only had a few hours to spare. If

I pressured myself into connecting with every place I go to, I would go pretty loco. This is your second time in Holland. You played in Amsterdam last year. Did you get a chance yet to have a typical Dutch kroket from Febo? Gosh, no! What is that? It’s a quintessential Dutch obsession. It’s a deep fried stick of mush with bits of meat in it. You walk up to the window, throw in a coin, smear some mustard on it and gobble it up. That sounds awesome. Let’s go grab one after sound check! Deal. Tell me a bit more about this habit of yours to hide in weird places to sing. You prefer car parks and stairwells these days, as opposed to the empty halls of your dad’s church when you were younger. Is this your favourite way to create music? I did that as a kid all the time and I still do it. The thrill is still the same. Finding different places where it’s just super fun to sing is something I have always really loved doing. On your latest release, The Magic Place, you added a few more instruments to your songs, other than just your own voice. How important was this musical evolution for you as an artist? Well, I think it was just a natural progression. From my first EP Sanguine, to Florine and then to The Magic Place, each record was a step away from the previous one. When I first started, I recorded all my music in my bedroom using just a guitar pedal and a 4-track cassette machine and there’s really only so far you can go with that. I recorded Florine and The Magic Place with my loop station and my computer but for the last

record I had access to a real soundproof recording studio and I was just interested in incorporating some of the instruments that were lying around there. Your dad has been begging you to include some intelligible words into your songs but so far you’re not granted him that wish. What’s the reason for you avoiding them so much and could you see yourself bringing them in for your next album? You know I love a good lyricist like Joanna Newsom or Bill Callahan. I always think: “How did they come up with that?” They’re way smarter than I am. I guess in my case it has to do with the fact that I have real trouble committing to any lyrics I come up with. It would also sound really strange if on top of the loops and layers I’d have to include words. My music is not so much about the meaning of words but about the sound of everything. I’ll let others write the lyrics. On Sanguine a lot of your songs are left untitled but on your later releases they have names like “Prizewinning”, “Vow” and “Keep up the good work”. Are these just random names or actually images that you had in your mind when you wrote the songs? It’s a bit of both really. I normally come up with the song titles after I’ve decided on the sequence of the album. I listen to the songs and try to imagine what they sound like. For example, this one song sounded triumphant but I didn’t want to call it that so I thought: “What else can I call it? Ah yes, prizewinning. That sounds better.” In “Keep up the good work” I am actually saying that somewhere in the song, but it just gets so washed out you can’t understand it. It’s what my dad has been saying to me weekly for pretty much my entire life so I guess I just wanted to hold on to that somehow.

When you play live, do you ever end up trailing off and playing a certain song totally different to what you had intended? I guess in your case people wouldn’t really notice so much, would they? Playing live is always an experiment. I mean I also need to figure out how to play my songs live, like everyone else, but the thing I like about my style is that there’s always room for error. It’s totally possible that you end up with something that doesn’t sound so awesome. Last night I actually completely lost my way for the first time ever. I knew I was meant to be doing something but I couldn’t remember what. I was like: “What’s happening to me?!?!” Good thing is no one noticed, but me. If I were in a band, people would have been like: “Uh, she just totally screwed that one up.” You got loads of very positive feedback for The Magic Place from the likes of Pitchfork and The New York Times. This guy from the SF Weekly even compared your music to “getting head in a massive, airy cathedral.” Fair assessment? Hahaha, are you serious? Wow, each to his own, you know? I have come across some pretty creative ones. Diplo once tweeted: “If you want

to listen to music that sounds like care bears making love, go check out this chick.” People have called your music all sorts of things but it’s actually rather hard putting you in any known category. Where do you see yourself? I feel like I don’t fit in anywhere and you know what? That’s perfectly fine. If people want to call my music New Age or Electronica or whatever, I don’t mind. You’ve been doing quite a few collaborations lately, with artists like Ikue Mori, Helado Negro and Sharon Van Etten. Diplo, who you just mentioned made a remix of “Vow” …. I loooooooove that remix. … and you also did a remix of Radiohead’s “Reckoner”. Is that a sign that you’re big business now? Full disclosure. Someone at Radiohead’s label reached out to some peeps like Diplo, me and a few others to kickstart that public remix contest they had. Don’t get me wrong. It was super awesome but at the same time I am not too amped to become “remix-girl”. But that’s actually how I met Diplo and asked him to do that remix

for me. We’re total bessies now. Just kidding. Are you a totally different person today than you were when you first started five years ago? I was actually thinking about that on this trip. I mean I still have the same looping station and bags I’ve always had. So, I guess apart from having written new material and having played a billion shows I still do things the same way I did then, when I still had a Myspace account, haha. So, when you get home will you just hide for a while or are we going to hear from you again soon? You know, I’m married. I love cooking and hanging out with my friends, so I’m not actually planning on doing a hell of a lot for a while. My new album comes out in May and I’ll definitely do some touring again after that. Julianna Barwick’s latest album “The Magic Place” is out on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

”...Playing live is always an experiment. I mean I also need to figure out how to play my songs live, like everyone else, but the thing I like about my style is that there’s always room for error...”

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The magical world of

MANDY SMITH “I love paper, it’s so open and accessible. It’s a good building material: it becomes strong with some glue, or is flexible without it. You can create great textures with it too, literally the possibilities are endless.” words: Sarah-Jane Threipland PHOTOS: MYSCHA oréo unless otherwise stated

If we could see the world differently, most of us would choose to. If we could have the paper-thin wall between us and imagination torn down permanently, wouldn’t we also nibble the ‘Alice in wonderland’ biscuit? So it’s no surprise that Mandy Smith, for whom all this was completely possible, took the small door into a magical corridor of her own devising. And became what is called a Paper Artist. Many people don’t get much further than where they begin—a folded paper jet-plane hurled towards the front of class. But you’d know if a Mandy Smith creation landed on your desk. Now she’s landed far and wide, and to a large range of clients: from working with Ted Talks on an opening credit animation, to being head of paper art on a car ad for Toyota, to making teeny icons for the phone brand LG. Mandy began moving towards her current career, as a draftsman and trainee art director for the infamous Pinewood studios. It was here she learnt how to draw film sets with an architectural precision. She has since assisted in making music videos, as an art director for Stereophonics and Noah and the Whale. And has then worked in advertising for Wieden & Kennedy and 180; the latter is where she first experimented with paper and found her love of making entire worlds. There is now almost nothing she cannot create, a fact she prides herself on. “I love paper, it’s so open and accessible. It’s a good building material: it becomes strong with some glue, or is flexible without it. You can create great textures with it too, literally the possibilities are endless.” As she thinks about the things she’s made and how, a faint smile lingers at her lips. Mandy began this way of creating, in part, to combine the subjects she loves– maths and physics alongside her art. This is not so usual for an artist. Figuring out how to build her worlds in an almost mathematical fashion inspires her as much as the medium itself. And there’s no lack of imagination in her well thought-out creations. She’s inspired by the likes of director Tim Burton and photographer Tim Walker. She loves art exhibitions like ‘Psycho Buildings’ or to flick through one the many art books in her library, Escher perhaps, or Giger’s work on ‘Alien’. She always strives to do her own thing and be different, something that’s evident: “I’m inspired by great people, but you can’t be someone else, people’s styles are theirs and mine is unique to me. I do what makes me happy,” again she smiles that particular smile. Her vision can be seen a little in how she describes her love of colour, even this is 3D crazy—as demonstrated by her experimental video ‘chlorophyll skin’. For this piece, she used cotton buds and coloured inks: “I don’t really like flat colours but rather colours in things. Say looking at lots of greenery like trees makes me so happy and relaxed. Or looking at the sea to the horizon when the sun is disappearing, how the blue sparkles. Seeing the tulips here in the Netherlands is one my strongest memories of colour. It’s insane. From afar, it looked just like someone had painted the ground an intense line of purple!” Mandy most often creates out of her Amsterdam-based studio. She’ll work from home on smaller projects or on initial treatments for her clients. She directs this creativity a little like those first music videos—using sounds and song to draw everything out into the world. Soundtracks for when she’s in full-on creative mode: Edward Scissorhands or the ballet Swan Lake are personal favourites, then moving onto BBC radio and talk shows while she’s doing the paper work itself. It can help her feel less isolated. This is something she struggled when she first started out, before she got to travel to her clients’ place of work. 34

Ironically her first project from home featured a home. Called ‘The Move,’ it took months to finish– and showcased a house with a front that swung open to reveal a perfectly formed interior. She filmed it in a few continuous takes, but the building part was done with an intense eye to detail. This, of course, she got exactly right. “Self promotion can be the most exacting project as every detail has to be right, it’s really more like you’re showing a part of yourself. I still think ‘The Move’ that I art directed, directed and produced is one of my favourites.” Projects can now take as little time as a few days, and as long as a few weeks. And there is a lot of time to think in those creative stretches both work-wise and personally. It could be this consciousness that becomes so visible in her work: there is a joy evident in what she produces. “It’s a little like meditation, working in paper. You have to be really patient. When I first started there was a lot of experiments and starting over. It takes quite something to be able to stop what’s not working, but it always works out better if you do.” Time, as with most artists, is certainly not something Mandy has in abundance, though. She continues to push further, getting more folds into her version of reality so her work keeps on evolving. She finds herself busier and busier nowadays, but still she dreams further: “I’d love to get invited to do an exhibition somewhere. I’ve built up a nice portfolio and I love commercial work—it’s fast and exciting and you meet great people, but it’d be nice to do more artwork. I’d like to build a hugely big world that people can walk through in wonder.” Maybe the magical world of Mandy Smith will become more visible to us soon, after all.

photo: Leon Hendrickx

You can see Mandy’s imagination at work on her websites, or through her agent at Blinkart. www.mandysmithwork.com • vimeo.com/user3702054 • www.blinkart.co.uk 37

photo: Lars Siemens

photo: Mandy Smith

photo: Leon Hendrickx

photo: Lucy Macrae

photo: James Medcraft

photo: Leon Hendrickx

eten met kwaliteit

www.iLekker.nl 45

MARK JANICELLO International Man of Mystery

the big picture

MARK JANICELLO HAS BEEN AN ARTIST SINCE HE WAS 4 YEARS OLD. HE HAS WORKED IN EVERY PERFORMANCE MEDIUM FROM OPERA TO TELEVISION TO MUSICAL, ROCK, POP AND FILM. AS A PAINTER, HE HAS ENJOYED 11 SUCCESSFUL INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS AND CURRENTLY OWNS GALLERY LARAVEN IN AMSTERDAM AND ZANDVOORT, NL. 46

“Penny wise and dollar foolish.” “You can’t see the forest for the trees,” and so on and so forth... There are myriad expressions to convey the idea of someone who trips over a detail, and loses sight of “The Big Picture.” Those of you who read this column on a regular basis, realize that I am not busy talking about “art” so much, as I am about the “business” around art. Why do I do that? Because most artists don’t have a CLUE about business. Most artists don’t have any idea how other people percieve them and it is destroying their careers. In the moment, Gallery LaRaven is closed, as I am looking for a new building. Asbestos was discovered in our former gallery and we were forced to evacuate on short notice. Despite that, I am approached DAILY from artists from all over Europe who want to exhibit their work with me. When you run an art gallery, you meet EVERY kind of artist. You meet ambitious amateurs, lazy professionals, unbelievable natural talents and others, who have spent years studying and practicing, but STILL cannot produce a decent work of art. One of the advantages of growing older, is that you start to see “patterns” in the behaviour of people. You recognize a person’s real nature, not by what they say, but by what they do. There are artists, who, despite having a great deal of talent, have never really “made it.” These artists, tend to have the most excuses as to why they and their creations are not being acknowledged by the press and public the way they “should be.”

There is a almost universal agreement that people like Amy Winehouse and Adele could or can sing. However, take one a step away from these artists and opinions become sharply divided. Katy Perry? JayZ, Justin Bieber? Niki Minaj? Ke$ha? Rhianna? One Direction? Are they “artists?” Are they even “musicians?” or are they just commercial “products?” Is rap “music?” Can these very famous people even sing??? At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter. All of the above, have, for one reason or the other “made it.” How? By strength of their undeniable talent?? Fuggetaboutit!! It’s called connections. It’s not WHAT you know, but WHO you know. Connections and PEOPLE are the most valuable commodity that anyone can have. Success is mostly made in steps, and only occasionally with jumps. Real connections are made by treating each other with mutual respect and trust, understanding that a good connection is worth it’s weight in gold. No doubt, over the years, you’ve seen interviews with famous singers or actors, who complain about how “difficult” their lives are. They complain about the papparazzi. They complain about the critics. Basically, what they are doing is showing how ungrateful they are for the success they have. It’s no different in the world of art. I’m now going to tell you a story about 3 very foolish artists who I wasted my time and energy supporting in the last year in my galleries in Amsterdam and Zandvoort.

I am here to tell you that 95% of the time, it isn’t a problem with their work. The problem is the artist themself.

All three of these artists were exceptionally talented. One of them was starting a career. One was in the middle of their career and one of them was moving into the end of a career.

As in any other type of undertaking, talent is only ONE element of success. But, who exactly defines what “talent” is?

None of them had ever had any real “success,” but because of their talent, I saw real potential in all three of them. I was wrong.

I made special deals with these artists. I did HUGE amounts of promotion for their exhibitions and their work through our websites, newsletters and through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I sold their books. I gave out their promotional materials. I treated these three artists the way I always wanted to be treated. All three of these artists were THRILLED to have someone working WITH and FOR them. All three of them benefitted from the exposure and publicity. One of them began selling work online at a much higher price level than ever before. For one of them, they got 40% more commissioned jobs than ever before. So, how did these three “geniuses” react? What did they do?? All three of them “threw the baby out with the bathwater.” They lost sight of “the big picture.” First, these artists did not keep their agreements with me or with the gallery. Then, all three of them ignored 4-6 months of non-stop promotion and publicity (which would have cost them a FORTUNE), extremely generous deals for their exhibitions and, for (literally) a few Euros, destroyed their relationships with me and with my gallery. Factually, none of these disputed amounts were more than €75. So, over a disagreement about pennies, they lost everything. Gentle readers, this is the “pattern of behaviour” that I referred to earlier. Why are these very talented people still unknown and struggling??? I guess, that I was not the first person that they treated this way. And, one thing is for sure, I won’t be the last. Will these artists ever amount to anything? I would venture to say “No.” It’s all about the “big picture.”

www.markjanicello.net www.gallerylaraven.com

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LIVORNESI AL MARE

This is a short photo story about pride and love, simplicity and cheerfulness, beautiful uncomfortable rocks and passion. photography: Attilio Brancaccio

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concept & styling: Myscha Oréo photography: attilio Brancaccio & myscha oréo MODELS: Liam Osbourne • Tess Posthumus make-up: nynamakeup.com thanks to: Ludlow Street, SPRMRKT and L’enfant Terrible

jacket: Zara, jeans: Religion, accesories: stylist own

myscha orĂŠo

jeans shorts: Levi’s, shoes: L’enfant Terrible

myscha oréo

shirt & jacket: Religion

attilio Brancaccio

myscha orĂŠo

shirt: vintage, trousers: Religion, tie: Episode, shoes: Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;enfant Terrible

leather cardigan: SPR+, trousers: Zara myscha orĂŠo

attilio Brancaccio

Top: Religion, shorts: vintage, gloves: modelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own

jacket, shirt and jeans: religion attilio Brancaccio

Dress & Cardigen: SPR+, trousers & scarf: Religion

attilio Brancaccio

Tess: jacket & shirt Religion. Liam: fur vest, leggings and gloves: vintage

myscha orĂŠo

Shirt & trousers: Religion, biker jacket: vintage Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neill myscha orĂŠo

cardigan :religion

attilio Brancaccio

cardigan and shorts: Religion, shoes: Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;enfant Terrible attilio Brancaccio

shirt: vintage, trousers: Religion, tie: Episode, shoes: Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;enfant Terrible

myscha orĂŠo

customized Slayer jacket by stylist

myscha orĂŠo

World Design

Capital Helsinki 2012 Interview and translation by Anna Kelhu

Helsinki, the capital city of Finland, has just come to the end of its host year as the World Design Capital of 2012. HoopDoop approached the fine people leading the Helsinki World Design Capital-project to find out how the year has gone by, what makes Helsinki the perfect design destination and what the city takes away with it from the experience. Senior Communications Officer Maarit Kivistö kindly answered our questions. What makes Helsinki the perfect host for a World Design Capital project? Helsinki is the third World Design Capital, and is working together with the nearby cities of Espoo, Vantaa, Lahti and Kauniainen. This metropolitan area was seen as exemplary in combining design and innovation to serve the needs of its inhabitants. Finland as a country has a strong history in design, but also a fresh and skilled touch when it comes to the art of designing and the methods of realising designs. In addition, our compact cities are in the process of great transformations, and we have what it takes to

solve common problems with the aid of design. The approach of the previous Design Capitals (2008 Torino; 2010 Seoul) have been very different. In Torino, the focus was on promoting the so-called traditional design trades, and in Seoul they launched a new design center. We haven’t made substantial comparisons between our actions and theirs. Helsinki has been part of a continuum in which new traditions are being created and we don’t yet know the exact direction where it’s all headed. It will be very interesting to see what kind of a year Cape Town (WDC 2014) builds, and where the next Design Capital after

that will be. Belonging to this family of Design Capitals and working in its networks will be valuable and interesting far into the future. What does design mean to you? I hope that this year has helped people in realising that design isn’t only about impressive objects shown on the pages of glossy magazines. At the core, design is durable, functional and user friendly – a combination of qualities we should demand in all of our environments: at home, at school, at work, in public transport networks, in health centres, libraries…

• Kaupunkiviljelijät, Arabia 2011, photo credit: Valtteri Hirvonen

â&#x20AC;˘ Lasipalatsissa, 2011, photo credit: Valtteri Hirvonen 79

• Poika ja potkukelkka, Helsinki 2011, photo credit: Valtteri Hirvonen

• Pirje Mykkänen

You’ve been running nearly 400 projects this year. When setting out to build the Design Capital year, which were the main goals? Would you say those goals have been reached..? Perhaps more essential than our organisational goals is what was left behind for all the hundreds and thousands of co-operators who were working with us this year. We’ve brought people together, communicated all that has happened during the year and carried out ambitious plans, such as the Index: Award-show which presented some of the most interesting responsible design concepts of the world, and the Pavilion-space, which has become like a living room for the local city people. I hope that for the inhabitants of the Design Capital area, the year has given more advanced tools in looking at their surroundings and demanding design know-how in developing them. This year has also activated and enabled new ways to participate in designing city-like environments and creating cultures within. One of the most important legacies may be

the numerous new partnerships which have developed during and due to this year. Many interdisciplinary co-operations have begun, which aim to utilize design in different ways, in a long run. Students of several Universities and Institutes have contributed to projects in both the private and the public sector. As for the field of design itself, the year has been fantastic in terms of increased demand. I truly wish for this trend for growth to last. The actual goals of ours have not centred in creating a year of spectacle, but in raising the role of design to a more visible status in the process of building a better future and more functional cities. We wanted visibility on the matter that the decisions concerning our everyday lives and our habitats are the ones that affect us all. Today, half of the world’s population resides in cities, and the challenges of the field of design have to do with better and lasting solutions for everyday life. For a Helsinki day tripper, a true design enthusiast, where would you recommend

them to visit? There’s a lot to see and experience here, during and after the Design Capital year. One interesting option would be the following route, starting from the airport. At Helsinki-Vantaa airport, I’d start by taking advantage of the Suvanto lounge and charge my mobile whilst enjoying the free wifi (http:// www.helsinki-vantaa.fi/newsletter/ newsletter-article?article=8827833). Once at Helsinki center, I’d at least check out the following architectural sights: - The Kamppi Chapel of Silence, a truly peaceful retreat in the middle of a bustling cit y(http://wdchelsinki2012.fi/en/ program/2011-07-01/kamppi-chapelsilence) - The new Helsinki university main library, called Kaisa house (http://wdchelsinki2012.fi/en/ news/2012-09-05/kaisa-house-libraryopened-doors-public). For a real design experience, I’d visit the Design museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. Making a stop at nearby Galerie

• Eero Aarnio’s patio • photo credit DEA_2773 81

â&#x20AC;˘ Martela - WDC- photo credit: Juho Huttunen 82

Forsblom is also highly recommendable, to see, which exhibition they’ve got on at that moment. Another impressive architectural destination is of course Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art. http://www.designmuseum.fi/en/ http://www.mfa.fi/frontpage? http://www.galerieforsblom.com/ http://www.kiasma.fi/kiasma_en For shopping, I’d head to the Design Forum Shop and pick up a map for Design District Helsinki. Must-do stops would include Secret Shop, Artek 2nd Cycle and Helsinki 10. http://www.designforum.fi/shop_en http://www.designdistrict.fi/news http://www.com-pa-ny.com/shop http://www.helsinki10.fi/ If I still had time, I’d get to know the Teurastamo (eng. Abattoir) area and enjoy a meal there. http://www.teurastamo.com/en/ Has the Design Capital year changed the face of Helsinki? There are new common spaces now for the citizens in five different cities: in Helsinki you’ll find the Teurastamo-area, chapel of Kamp,

• wdc - photo credit: Saara Salama

the Pavilion, Kaisa house library, city farm Kääntöpöytä and the Cultural Sauna; in Espoo the Design Espoo-space and a nature center Haltia, which opens up in the new year; in Vantaa the Designwindow and Suvanto-lounges at the airport, which are open to all visitors; in Lahti Muotohuoltamo (Design Service Station). All these new spaces changed the city images either temporarily or for good, and offered fresh locations for people to meet up in town. All spaces were planned from the start to provide platforms for collective activities for inhabitants. During the past year, a great understanding also developed concerning the fact the a city belongs to its citizens. The message of an ‘open city’ spread out wide and all sorts of groups of people became empowered to realise their visions and become collectively active. The events of the Design Capital year brought in 500 000 participants, and our program touched an even larger local population through development projects. With the help of design, new solutions have been found for, for instance, welfare services, senior citizens’ culinary culture, the airport security check, the future signal systems in the city of Helsinki…

Any big plans for the final month – are you finishing the year with a bang? Since the year wasn’t primarily about events, we’re more focused on bringing the projects and changes which were ignited this year into the new year. We want to see cooperation between the 5 cities, 2 Universities, the foundations and the state to keep growing stronger, and to keep encouraging development projects and sharing of networks. However, one of the more visible finishing events on 29.11.12 summed up the year through internationally influential speakers, such as Ravi Naidoo and Mirkku Kullberg, and in a panel discussion between the city mayors of Cape Town, Taipei and Lahti, city council president of Stockholm and the representatives of Icsid, UNESCO, IBM and Smarter Cities-network. At the celebratory dinner, Patricia de Lille, the mayor of Cape Town, accepted the title for the next World Design Capital, handed over by Helsinki. _________________________ For more info on the project, please visit http://wdchelsinki2012.fi/en http://www.worlddesigncapital.com/

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hoop doop meets

fusèe dorèe A Golden Rocket Story!

interview: agnese roda • PHOTOS: monyart

Fusée Dorée is French for Golden Rocket. I personally do not know if golden rockets really exist in space, but in the home galaxy of Emmanuelle Ornon and her two men (her son and husband), they certainly do. She is a French singer songwriter, based in Amsterdam. Her electro rock solo project takes shape in the comfort of her home and during a daily ritual of disciplined playing, mixing and rehearsing for a performance, whilst experimenting new stuff. In her ‘space’, she gathers all sorts of instrumental tools (guitars, keyboard, loop pedal, computer) and mixes sounds adding the interesting tones of her voice, filling it with a melange of perfectly spoken English, some sensual French lyrics, adding a special rock’n roll feel. We sit in her colourful living room listening to music, drinking wine, surrounded by ‘constellations’ of her son’s Lego, talking about time, age, moments in life and when self-awareness leads to new opportunities…

photo: Attilio Brancaccio

When did you start with a music project? Actually my first live performance was soon after my son was born, seven years ago. Most people stop at that time but for me it worked the other way around. Somehow it gave me the strength to just try everything I’d always wanted to do, to take more risks. We listen to her new single’s remix that will be released in January. She is proudly smiling at me, and I smile back, feeling I am starting to get my personal daily dose of inspiration. A friend had asked me to record vocals for a couple of his songs. Then he called me soon after my son was born. He said he had sent the songs to a producer who kind of liked them. So he asked if I wanted to go and sing with them! Suddenly we had a gig. We only rehearsed a couple of times and I was dead scared at the time of the performance. But it was thrilling and I have never stopped performing since then.

When did you realize you wanted to make music? Playing music had always been a secret dream, but for a long time I thought I was not able to do something good enough. Music was kind of a holy thing. Either you make it good, or you don’t and you just enjoy what other people do. So I came to making music through visual arts. I started with vocal soundscapes but little by little I wanted more… Then I came to that point where I thought: “Fuck it, I want to do it so I am going to do it”. Which basically means: “Girl you’re not done with learning and sweating, but it’s going to be fun!” She smiles at me with sparkling eyes and that elegant French attitude that turns even bad words into romantic ones, while she continues… Even if it is not perfect, even if some people do it much better than you, at least you have to start to learn, experiment, keep working and have some pleasure in the process. And in the end

there are people who enjoy what I do… I think at a certain moment in your life, you become at ease with yourself and things just happen! Are you happy it happened now and not before? I just think I should have allowed myself to make music sooner, but you know I did other things… living, going out, meeting inspiring people and travelling the world. I was also busy with my visual artwork. That took an important place. What are your main music influences and memories? It was never only about French music… but I come from Bordeaux, and in Bordeaux we had the band Noir Desir. They have mostly French lyrics and they play rock music. Obviously they nourished my music taste, although what I play is more electro. When I started playing music on my own, I was more minimalistic, but the more I perform, the

more I feel like playing rock stuff. My first memory… It’s not my first memory but I can remember myself doing my homework, trying to learn multiplication tables and hearing that song on the radio “Video killed the radio stars”. I really liked that song, found it different. Later on I had big emotions for Kate Bush and Iggy Pop… I tried to learn the lyrics and understand their meaning… or when I wondered how to pronounce B52’s, because in French it would be “baysankantedeuz’. Ahaha! And then New Wave… Echo and the Bunnymen, the Cure, the Smiths… Memories are important. I can see it now with my son. He starts to learn guitar and loves The Black Keys, PJ Harvey’s first album… He’s got a pretty good taste! Why did you choose for a solo project? Don’t misunderstand me: I do love performing with a band. When it’s going well, it can be really good. All of a sudden you get this rush of adrenaline, you are so much into the music, you can feel the other musicians and the audience, you can catch all those eyes watching you. At the end of the song, you realize you’ve been jumping all over the place and wooowwww, you’ve given and received a lot of energy and emotions. Sooo cool! That is what I missed the most when I started this solo project. With the band I didn’t have to stay in control so much and I could let myself go.

So now my dear friend Mario joins me on stage to play bass (and soon drums!). It’s so much fun to play with him. He’s a great multi-instrumentalist and such a cool guy. But basically I went solo to be closer to my own taste, even though in the beginning it requires a lot of focus. When you play on your own, obviously, you’re multitasking and you need to be precise in loads of things at the same time, like looping stuff, sync, instruments and vocals. I started playing guitar not so long ago; I am still a young player. But now I’m glad I am over that phase and more into the performance and expression. I learn to play instruments when needed, this means for me extra training, but at the same time I don’t easily fall into “recipes”, such as regular scales and patterns. I have to memorize everything, because I don’t write music. With the band I was really happy, but I felt I had a taste of my own I couldn’t always express. Is that the moment when you were asked to produce music for French poems? I was asked to make music for poems for a performance at the French Institute in Amsterdam. For that occasion I bought my first loop pedal. I had wanted one for a long time. So that performance was the good excuse. I sort of “had to buy it”.

And that is how it started. I chose six poems and composed music for them. For some, I only made a capella arrangements, layering vocals. Others were accompanied by a guitar and beats. With the loop-machine, for vocal stuff, you can jam with yourself and create like a sort of a choir. You can also make an instrumental line and work with it on the spot. Otherwise I work with the software Logic to record and mix home demos. I then bought a good guitar and all sorts of pedals (my husband also made a great distortion pedal for me); I can get really high on guitar sounds. Uaaahhhh! You turn on a distortion and delay and it is like Uuuuhhhhh! What are your latest accomplishments? The new single Home will be released at end of January with a video by Roberto Wong and a fantastic remix by Laurent on Cherry Juice Recordings. http://www.cherryjuicerecordings. com Alex Kaseta just made a video for the song Twinkle (from the first EP). He made amazing visuals for the First Mars Party on Earth that took place last December. The second EP release party should take place in February. Check it out here! www.fuseedoree.com

osKar Fischinger

EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMATIC ABSTRACTIONS

Oskar Fischinger in his Hollywood studio with panels from the film Motion Painting no 1 (1947) ÂŠ Fischinger Trust, courtesy Center for Visual Music

BY Monyart (Monica Martino) 92

Oskar Fischinger was born in Gelnhausen, Germany in 1900, and emigrated to Los Angeles in 1936, where he lived until his death in 1967. His work has been a source of inspiration for many artists and had a great influence on the development of today’s media and digital culture. My encounter with the wonderful work of Oskar Fischinger took place last month at the press presentation of the new exhibition at Eye. Before going at the Eye I did my homework. I checked what is available online about Oskar’s work and life, but certainly I was not prepared for the beauty I discovered that day. I always related animation and especially visual music with computer graphics, but at that time (1920) the German visionary Fischinger didn’t have a computer to synchronize music and drawings. In order to produce his fantasy world he invented during his career several cinematic “machines”, such as the wax-slicing machine and the Lumigraph. “This art emphasizes the effect of music. It is to music what wings are to birds” After Oskar’s death, his wife Elfriede and later his daughter Barbara, who was present at EYE, together with Bill Moritz took care of his legacy that includes movies, paintings, photos; letters and documents. Since 2009, Fischinger Trust began donating Fischinger’s papers and animation material to CVM (Center for Visual Music). www.centerforvisualmusic.org I strongly recommend you to visit this exhibition. You will be captured by Oskar Fischinger timeless work and you will leave the museum with a dancing soul. The exhibition is co-curated by EYE’s Director of Exhibitions Jaap Guldemond and Cindy Keefer of the Center for Visual Music. It is co-organized by EYE and Center for Visual Music. It will run until the 17th of March 2013.

Oskar Fischinger, still from Allegretto, 1936-1943, XXmm, color, sound

Oskar Fischinger, still from Kreise (Circles), 1933-34, 35mm, color, sound ÂŠ Fischinger Trust, courtesy Center for Visual Music