Once, when I was living in Moscow
before 2011, I was informed about monochrom by recommendation of my
friend: the activist initiatives of this art group from Vienna seemed
fascinating due to its art-tech philosophy and it put a smile on my face
due to its pop attitude. Later on in Linz Günther Friesinger, one of
the creators of monochrom, gave a lecture to Media Art Histories
students of the Donau Universität, which inspired me to arrange an
interview with him. The first question I asked was about establishing
monochrom. Günther explained that “monochrom came into being in 1993 as a
fanzine for cyberculture, science, theory, cultural studies and the
archeology of pop culture in every-day life. Its collage format is
reminiscent of both the early DIY fanzines of the punk and new wave
underground and the art books of figures such as Dieter Roth, Martin
Kippenberger and others. For a while now, monochrom have been venturing
further than publishing alone, and have been responsibly influencing
people’s minds via film production, performances and festivals. If you
are in Vienna in autumn by chance, have a look at the paraflows festival – one of the main projects run by monochrom.
