Erotica Papers

international magazine exhibition curated by Margherita Visentini and Gema Navarro
a project by The Magazine Club | Madrid

February 6–16 2020
Open Design Area
Ronda de Toledo 16 | Local 9
Madrid
Mon—Thu 16 to 20h
Fri—Sun 11 to 20h
Free entry

The Magazine Club Madrid welcomes you to Erotica Papers, our very first magazine exhibition, which gathers more than 15 indie mags about filthy, dirty, adult pleasure, to try to delve into what Plato said in his Symposium, that eros makes every man a poet. Or maybe, an indie magazine editor, we may suggest.

The exhibition belongs to the Festival OFF program by Madrid Design Festival 2020. The Magazine Club started with the idea to celebrate magazines, especially independent ones, and Erotica Papers adds up a hint of lust!

We decided to join the program of the Madrid Design Festival in our own way, through graphic design and editorial suggestions–some of these hard to find in Spain–even if we’re lucky enough to count also on magazines such as Kink, Morena and Odiseo, our national heroes.

The 21st century has seen the ever-expanding debate about sexuality been fully accepted, and the boundaries between pornography and art have been blurred thanks also to a flourishing of independent paper publications. This exhibition follows the present scene of erotic representation in magazines, journals and zines all linked by the red thread of excellent design.

For this exhibition we have been gathering a varied collection of international erotic magazines offering a range of different perspectives. Far from being exhaustive, our investigation tries to show why we should forget about Playboy and think, instead, of Robert Mapplethorpe, Egon Schiele or Keith Haring–renowned artists exhibited in worldwide museums and galleries. Meditations on male and female bodies, explicit sexual behaviors and joyful photography investigations will give a picture of what sex in magazine can be nowadays. “We should have more sexual education” claims the first page of issue 1 of POV paper; maybe this is the reason why so many magazines about sexuality have sprung lately.

This wide selection of indie mags and zines published since 2005 explores the various ways in which the magazine format can be used as an experimental space for the research on eroticism. We hope that the different approaches and experiences will be a delighted surprise for you to discover: from Carcy’s fashion photography to Phile’s exploration of subcultures, fetish and kink communities; from the high editorial standard of Mal’s literary writings to Ossì’s glossy attempt to create a porn journal looking like an Italian photostory dated back to the ‘70. We didn’t forget to ask the editors here represented what’s their idea of eroticism, discovering how exquisitely wide is the spectra of the ideas set inside their publications.

We hope to contribute to spread new languages and make Madrid a more happy and weird place!

To celebrate the opening of Erotica Papers on February the 6^th, The Magazine Club will host a new panel discussion with the editorial staff of the Barcelona-based Odiseo magazine. Albert Folch and Rafa Martinez, from Folch Studio, will be in conversation with Margherita Visentini to talk about the current issue of Odiseo, the biggest challenges and obstacles to publish an independent publication and erotic magazines.

For more info: info@themagazineclub.madrid