Chicago (art magazine)

Chicago, Times, Plotter, Helvetica, DIN, Techno, Löhfelm, RR_02, Univers, Tiffany, Circuit and Memphis are the 12 issues of the Chicago magazine founded in 2002 in Vienna by a group of Austrian, German and Swiss artists: Christian Egger, Manuel Gorkiewicz, Christian Mayer, Yves Mettler, Magda Tothova, Ruth Weismann, Alexander Wolff.

With 2 to 3 issues a year, the members of the team publish their magazine around their personal encounters and interests.

Each issue presents around fifteen contributions in both texts and images. Artists, writers, scientists and specialists in all kind of fields are invited to contribute and intervene within the framework of a discreet and pragmatical layout, which has already been acknowledged by the London Design Museum in its exhibition Best European Design 2005.

The focus of the redactional activity is in the organisation and assembling of the contributions, including their own material like interviews, found footages or critiques, in order to create for each issue a strong and original unity. This is especially stressed by the use of a different font for each issue which gives it its title. The 300 black-and-white prints are completed with a color centerfold poster by an internationally recognized artist (Elke Krystufek, Daniel Pflumm, Ayse Erkmen, Amelie von Wulffen, Renée Green, etc.).

Apart from the publishing work, the team organizes release parties for most issues in diverse locations such as panoramic bars, a wax museum, art project spaces and other magazine's redactional spaces, sometimes in combination with an artist's performance or exhibition, for example Gregor Hildebrandt exhibition/Künstlerhaus Passagengalerie Wien; Sven Åke Johansson performance/Büro Friedrich, Berlin; Max Krefeld concert/Basso Berlin.