RAUM

Issues

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About

Between 1996 and 1999, three issues of an art-zine titled “Raum” were published. The print run was a few hundred copies per issue. The zines were sold for a few Deutsch-Mark, essentially in exchange for a donation, or simply given away.

We were a group of friends interested in art, and at the time we all lived in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). Some of us attended the same school and were in the advanced art class together. In part, that was an important motivation for this project, but essentially it was about being creative and productive.

We were interested not only in collages, comics, graphics, and graffiti, but also in music. That’s why we came up with the idea of publishing interviews in our "fanzine" as well. What united us was a great openness to the most diverse forms of expression. There was absolutely no censorship or restriction. We were free to publish whatever we wanted. What mattered was that we could hold a finished product in our hands as soon as possible.

Our friends and families always supported us in this. Not so much financially—most of the issues were given away—but I don’t recall us ever receiving any negative or hostile feedback. Sometimes we annoyed people at concerts when we tried to hand out copies of RAUM (I still remember the Surrogat concert (Kitty-Yo) at Gebäude9 in Cologne-Deutz very well;). In any case, during this important phase of new beginnings, we ventured out from our modest Bundeshauptheimatstadt into the (not-so-)wide world.

Back then, while working on these issues, I was absolutely convinced of the quality we’d achieved together. Looking back, I realized that the project itself was something special. To be honest, maintaining that creative and productive freedom became increasingly difficult over the years. I can’t even say whether the limitations came more from within or from outside. But I’ve also come across similar projects less and less frequently. Even on the internet, things haven’t really improved in this regard. That’s why I’ve decided to publish the RAUM issues here on the web, so that access to these insights isn’t limited to the printed editions. (Many thanks to Benedikt Steuer, Grischa Göddertz and Stefanie de Velasco for the nudge;)

Credits