Magazine Love - Meet Errant Journal
Errant Journal is an international publication for cultural theory and practice created in Amsterdam and Berlin. Errant is a concept by Irene de Craen, realized in collaboration with Framer Framed, a platform for contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory & practice.
I’m so happy to share an interview with Irene - thanks to her time and sharing the inspiration behind an inspiring project…
What inspired you to start Errant and what is its purpose?
The main inspiration are the ideas of the philosopher and poet Édouard Glissant (1928-2011), in particular his ideas concerning the 'Poetics of Relation' in which he opposes ideas of centers, linearity, roots and dichotomy. The title – Errant Journal – also originates from Glissant. Errant, meaning both 'deviating from an accepted norm' and 'wandering', is a term that is very important in his thinking and represents a way of breaking free from the idea of identity based on origin and the possibility to possess a totality of knowledge. For Glissant, it is never the goal to know everything, to see and understand something in its entirety. Instead, a person who is 'errant' rejects the universal and challenges the idea that the world is transparent and explainable.
Based on these ideas, Errant plays with language and images and through this play - for which we have no rules - question hierarchies and the production of knowledge. For instance, Errant does not use one form of English throughout: we use American and British as well as leave someone's idiosyncrasies that might otherwise be considered as 'mistakes'. This is just a small, and mostly subtle, example of the way we experiment with the underlying philosophical notions. There are many other ways as well as thinkers that inspire the making of the journal, but it is also not necessary to know or understand all of them; the intuitively and very visual way the journal is put together, in combination with the variety of perspectives from all over the globe, makes it interesting to read for people of all sorts of backgrounds.
Who is its reader?
So many things you make plans for, turn out very differently, but this is something that is really working as I envisioned. We notice that there are broadly two types of people buying the magazine. The first is people interested in visual arts, art students as well as professionals. Although I wouldn't call Errant an art magazine (we do not see art as autonomous or ideally not even as a separate discipline), it is informed by art because of my own background as an art historian and uses the possibility of poetics in approaching larger societal issues. The second group of readers are academics with a wide variety of research areas. I am very happy to notice that these are the readers that find us, and find our way of thinking valuable for their own.
Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (Gluklya), Body of Future, from the series ‘Corona Diary’, 2020. Watercolour on paper 30 x 45 cm, private collection/courtesy AKINCI
Do you have any advice for someone wanting to start their own similar project?
I think with starting a magazine, my unending stubbornness comes in handy. You somehow have to ignore the impossibility of it all and just do it. I also - especially in the development stage where I had no idea how I was going to get it done and many people and funders told me it is impossible - try not to think about the entirety of it but only what is right in front of me and the next step I can take. There is a level of madness that I feel is necessary, because in many ways - not least the commercially sustainable or even profitable ways - it makes no sense to do this!
Extra: share your favourite places for coffee/food/drinks/entertainment in your home town?
My favorite bookshop in Berlin is hands down Hopscotch Reading Room. But Berlin has many other great places like Zabriskie, Curious Fox and BuchHafen. As for bars/restaurants: I mostly hang out with my friends in and around Görlitzer Park. I am part of a small community of artists, refugees and activists, and together we share food, paint or just hang out.
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