Meet Culturala | Interview

For your summer reading pleasure, we recently added Culturala Magazine, Issue 1 to our collection. Culturala is a networked based art theory magazine whose greatest wish is to make art accessible to all. A huge thank you to Maria for answering our questions and to Lauren for making it possible!

Where are you based?

We’re actually based a little bit all over! The majority of the culturala crew first met in London, but by the time we started on this we had a couple of people in London, one person in Mexico and me travelling a little bit all over Europe. Now we’ve got our “headquarters" in London and Lisbon.

What inspired you to start Culturala and what is its purpose?

A year and something ago, I was working freelance as an editor and cultural journalist, and was looking for more places to publish. So I'd made all these lists of places and so on, when I realised that I was just not interested in writing for any of those journals that paid enough. The need to adapt my language to an art jargon I knew but that no one around me could understand just to get published simply became…nauseating.

So I threw away the lists and decided I have to start something new. A place where you don’t have to do that. I come from a place of theory and research, but I believe that just because something is “researched” it doesn’t have to be inaccessible. So I called up the people I knew would be on board and who were sick of the way the art world is (aren’t we all?): Lauren, Laureen, and Sarah, and we started culturala.

Starting from a grassroots network, we first reached out to artists, writers, curators, designers and researchers. The more people we spoke to, the more it became clear that other people are looking for this too, and culturala took the shape it has today: an effort to reconnect the art world by creating a language for art and cultural theory that’s direct, accessible and welcoming.

“and culturala took the shape it has today: an effort to reconnect the art world by creating a language for art and cultural theory that’s direct, accessible and welcoming”

Who is its reader?

Anyone! If you’re into art, if you’re into culture, if you want to know more – then it’s the journal for you. I think our audience is pretty much 50/50 between artists and those who love going to exhibitions but don’t really know how to speak about it.

Do you have any advice for anyone starting their own creative project?

Ask for advice. Reach out to people, even people you don’t know. We spoke with so many collectives and companies and artists, and we learned so much from their stories. It was amazing to discover that you can actually just come knock on someone’s door (or, well, someone’s mailbox I guess!) and if you have an idea that you’re into, people will happily have a chat with you about their thoughts and their works. We found a lot of our collaborators that way too, and learned so much, even from the harsh truths!

Also to give yourself time to let things grow naturally, do not stress yourself out, and give loads of time for things to go wrong and still be fixed – because they will go wrong, and that’s not the end of the world.

Finally make sure you have fun! And good friends by your side.

extra: share your favourite places for coffee/food/drinks/entertainment in London?

Hard one this – where I grew up in a small city in Sweden and there’s basically just one place to go. So I’ll give you my favourite places in London and Lisbon instead.London

To shop: Peckham Rye Lane (the whole street!)

To drink: Hoxton Cabin

To eat: Super Three, Szchechuan Folk and Silk Road – the best Chinese restaurants in the city!

Lisbon

To shop: Feira da Ladra (it’s a flee market open Tuesdays and Saturdays)

To drink: Nucleo A70, Tipica de Alfama, Arroz Estudios… and any kiosk on any square.

To eat: O Cacador da Oliveira, Ramiro, A Toca (in Cacilhas, Almada)