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Acido Surtido

Acido Surtido

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100% Argentine product

Acido Surtido is a publication on art and design distributed for free in the whole country.
Not only the summoning topic/concept but also the participants are unique for each issue and define its personality.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Virrey del Pino 2632 13 G, CPA C1426 EGV

Email: luc@pumpd.com.ar

Category: Art, Design
Periodicity: Tri-Annual
Language: Spanish
Format: 160 x 235 mm
Price: Free
Web: http://www.acidosurtido.com.ar

Founded in 2001

The first issue of Acido Surtido was published in 2001, as an answer to the lack of action and the downhearted feelings that was threatening the national cultural production in those days.
Acido Surtido is a publication on art and design distributed for free in the whole country.
Contents : Our publication is a printed 65 cm x 95 cm sheet of paper, created by different collaborators around the same topic which is a conceptual frame to trigger ideas. Not only the summoning topic/concept but also the participants are unique for each issue and define its personality. Everybody who would like to take part in the challenge must show in a printed 16 cm x 23,5 cm space, freely using graphic and textual resources, their particular approach to the topic.

Exclusive Interview

Acid Experience

What is your magazine about?
Acido Surtido is a publication on art and design distributed for free in our whole country. The first issue of Acido Surtido was published in 2001, as an answer to the lack of action and the downhearted feelings that was threatening the national cultural production in those days. Trying to take over collective construction common places, Acido Surtido opens itself to other voices, getting together in order to share. A kind of generosity is underlying: those who offer the place, those who give their work, those who receive it and make its sense. Our publication is a printed 65 cm x 95 cm sheet of paper, created by different collaborators around the same topic which is a conceptual frame to trigger ideas. Not only the summoning topic/concept but also the participants are unique for each issue and define its personality. Everybody who would like to take part in the challenge must show in a printed 16 cm x 23,5 cm space, freely using graphic and textual resources, their particular approach to the topic. Some concepts from our past issues: Open, Instant, Methods, Revolution, Lost Paradises, I, Heroes, etc.

Who's behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Edited by designers Lucas López y Mauro López, Acido Surtido is free of charge for its readers and participants. It does not count on advertising spaces or sponsors of any kind whatsoever. Its production is supported by the editors only, thanks to invaluable fostering of design companies and studios that work disinterestedly. In a nut shell: find the difficult balance between a high level publication and a self-produced fanzine.

How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
Like an avant-garde " exquisite cadaver ", the summoned authors work in an independent way: nobody knows who the other participants are or what the other works are going to be like. At this stage, editors must personally follow each collaborators work and the integration of each work within the publication according to the most convenient criteria. Collaborations came frequently by e-mail. We are five in the team, Lucas López, Mauro López, Daniel Rezza (digital development area) Cinthia Avila (design assistant and graphic production) and Guido Bartolotta Tobio (assistant and illustrator).

What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Since first issue, Acido Surtido received collaboration from México, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Israel, Spain, Germany, South Africa and more. And, of course, from Argentina. Acido Surtido has the honour to edit collaborations from David Tartakover, Marian Bantjes, Slavimir Stojanovic, Doma, Masa, Felipe Taborda, Jorge Alderete, Garth Walker, Sandy K. All are special for us, because they accepted our invitation without hesitate. Some posters were developed with genius mind and talent such as Andy Simionato, Karen Ann Donnachie, Sergei Sviatchenko plus equipe designing our Luck issue. Or Alex Trochut + Vasava designing Power issue. In 2007, we featured Acido Surtido in Pecha Kucha Nights in Buenos Aires and we appeared in the influent blog Designing Magazines, which reviewed Acido Surtido. Under the title Acid Mix, Jandos Rothstein, describes the publication as 'a wonderful interactive experience'. From the beginning we are part of Colophon magazines directory. In 2005, Acido Surtido edited Acido Surtido|Acid Experience, a book that compiles first ten issues and has selected the most representative works from each one.

Which are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
The final printed work is a kind of finding. In that moment, every collaborator meets each other and faces their works. In this way, Acido Surtido aims to find a gathering place to reflect before new readings and meanings that comprehend and surpass the works involved. With an analytic, cartographic spirit, the reader can draw new territories and relationships, recognize coincidences, recurrences or contradictions among the proposals in each edition.

What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be the thing to help the magazine to improve?
The difficulties: low budget and distribution. The thing to improve: to edit more than 4,000 issues in full colour.

Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
Best known in Europe and USA.

Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
Our readers come from different disciplines, but they are mostly linked to visual arts: designers, photographers, illustrators, fine arts artists. However, throughout our issues there has been a heterogeneous universe which also includes writers and poets together with other collaborators.

Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
Yes.

What's your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
There are some other principles. Avoiding commercialization and production paraphernalia that could make its cooperation spirit strange and move towards massive circulation. Betting on the quality of its contents secretly hoping to achieve fulfillment.

What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
We appreciate issue 1 and its collaborators.

Magazine favorite(s) that inspired you in your career.
List includes Flaunt, Surface, RayGun, I-D, Wired, Critique, Etapes, Baseline, Eye, Graphik, The Wire, tipoGrafica (from Argentina) and many more. Acido Surtido is influenced by No Zone, Rojo, Tiger and fanzines. We collaborate and get in permanent contact with other similar projects such us This is a Magazine and Place by Vasava.

Do you keep old copies of magazines? If so, what is your favorite in your collection?
RayGun/ Japanese issue, This is a Magazine/ who i think i am compendium, Wired/ black and white Mc Luhan issue

How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself a maniac?
I'm a maniac collector of magazines. I read a lot about music and design, but since some months I stopped buying. I have no space in my house and studio. And I don't like to trash magazines.

We are compiling answers from some of the most innovative magazine makers around the world today. Who else should we ask?
Ramona, from Argentina

Answered by Lucas López (Editor and art director) Magazine: Acido Surtido Email: luc@pumpd.com.ar Date: 03-09-2008