032c magazine is a bi-annual, English-language contemporary culture magazine that covers art, fashion, and politics. It was founded in 2001 by Joerg Koch and is published in Berlin. It hosts exhibitions and events at its Workshop in the former brutalist church compound St. Agnes and produces a line of products under the moniker 032c Gear.
History
The magazine was founded in Berlin in 2001 by Joerg Koch, a freelance journalist who had previously run a gallery, and Sandra von Mayer-Myrtenhain. It was originally created as a way to win attention for the domain 032c.com. The original cover featured a giant red square, a reference to the bold color in the Pantone Matching System for which the publication is named. Past contributors include Matthew Barney, David Woodard, Helene Hegemann, Hedi Slimane, Daido Moriyama, Juergen Teller, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Rem Koolhaas/OMA. The fashion section has featured stories by Steven Klein, Mario Sorrenti, Collier Schorr, Inez Van Lamsweerde, Fabien Baron and Alasdair McLellan. The magazine has become known for its in-depth research dossiers on designers and artists such as Rei Kawakubo, Pablo Picasso, Azzedine Alaia, Nicolas Ghesquiere, William T Vollamann, and Werner Herzog. In 2007, Mike Meire became 032cs art director. For Issue 16, published in 2008, the magazine featured a 14-page profile and interview with photographer Steven Meisel, which The New York Times described as "historic." It included a fold-out section that archived two decades' worth of the photographer's Vogue Italia covers. In June 2013, 032c announced that stylist Mel Ottenberg would be taking over as the magazine's new fashion director. Koch said of the appointment, "I think he is the perfect match for 032c's modern take on fashion for men and women, as well as for exciting future projects that lie ahead." Later that year, Ottenberg styled Rihanna for the cover of issue 25 as part of an editorial shot by Inez and Vinoodh. In 2014, the magazine released a dossier on Raf Simons, featuring an extensive interview with the designer and a retrospective of his eponymous brand shot by longtime collaborator Willy Vanderperre. The issue was accompanied by exhibition at the magazine's workshop. 2015's Issue 29 featured a 40-page tribute to the groundbreaking and now-defunct interiors magazine Nest. Inaugurated in 2008 with an exhibition devoted to Helmut Lang's archive, 032c Workshop / Joerg Koch has since showed the work of artists and designers such as Juergen Teller, Cyprien Gaillard, Gosha Rubchinskiy, Cali Thornhill DeWitt, Nick Knight and Andro Wekua in their 8-meter-long vitrine designed by Konstantin Grcic. Since December 2016, the workshop hosts a store selling 032c apparel. As of January 2016, 032cs editor Joerg Koch has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Canadian fashion e-tailer Ssense.
Reception
i-D magazine considers 032c to be "dedicated to the celebration of ideas," Vogue Paris has referred to it as a "revue ultra-pointue", and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has called the magazine "the Berlin magazine that propagates an aesthetic of brutal elegance". According to The New York Times, "the magazine fuses art and architecture, literature, urban studies in ways that can make one forget how depressing a visit to a newsstand has become". INDUSTRIE Magazine credited 032c with setting "the most significant editorial agenda since The Face." 032c has been exhibited at the London Design Museum, Colette, GAS, The Pineal Eye and the 3rd Berlin Biennale, and has received much acclaim for its design and editorial scope, having been awarded one of Germany's Lead Awards for National Visual Lead Magazine in 2006. The magazine's new design layout in 2007 became a hotly debated issue in the fashion and media world, and a term, "the new ugly", sprung up around the aesthetic phenomenon. 032c was awarded the German media award Lead Magazine of the Year in 2008. Its fashion editorials have been awarded Lead Mood and Fashion Photography awards in 2014 and 2015.
