Are we able to navigate the complex intersection between identity politics and national movements in today’s Europe? Are the images we are creating, producing and disseminating able to actually say something about us and our sense of belonging? We proudly present the new issue of Foam Magazine: m/otherlands, created to explore the ways in which identity intersects and conflicts with nationalism and the idea of nation-state. In this issue the idea of nation and m/otherland is questioned and challenged, looking for re-imagined frameworks and ways to define and represent what We is, and who We want to be.

 This issue constitutes our very proud contribution to a challenging and timely project co-organised by The Racial Imaginary Institute, the CUNY Graduate Center and The Poetry Project, titled On Nationalism: The Fragility and the Possibility of ‘We’. Through a network of exhibitions and programming at sites including David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, Foam in Amsterdam, and the CUNY James Gallery in New York, we all look to ask: How can we reimagine nation, tribe, and community? What practices of listening, sharing, and making could be enacted across varying visions of community, decolonisation and self-determination?

 As a response to the questions that such a theme raises, the works and words on these pages explore the ways in which identity intersects and conflicts with nationalism and the idea of nation-state within the European context, and the ways in which artistic practice and communities have been highlighting challenges and overcoming barriers. With this issue we asked ourselves how do photography and visual culture inform and reimagine the concept of identity? What does it mean to belong? What happens in the suspended space between belonging and having access to? And how do whiteness and (contemporary) colonialism regulate, inform and influence this space? We attempted to tackle the complex intersection—possibly at its peak in Europe currently—between identity politics and national movements, while highlighting examples and experiences of transnational movements of solidarity throughout Europe.

 Alongside a plentiful range of portfolio artists, our feature section brings together a list of contributors that kindly shared with us some thoughtful contributions to this issue. Our bookshelf feature has a renewed form: we asked Mariama Attah to compose a thorough review of Mark Sealy’s latest publication Photography, Race and Representation. For the What’s New section, Awa Konaté writes about a new body of work by Silvia Rosi, titled Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense, currently premiering at the MAXXI Foundation in Rome. We feel honoured to host a conversation between acclaimed artist and co-founder of the Beirut-based Arab Image Foundation Akram Zaatari and art historian Nina Möntmann. They speak about the motivations and the many layers behind his work, and the idea of artist as archeologist. And last but not least, the cover image of Foam Magazine m/otherlands is an image from Tanja Ostojić’s portfolio Looking for a Husband with EU Passport. Building on her interest in the history of Europe and biopolitics. she questions immigration laws concerning her non-EU background, sex and gender politics, and the fragility of the position of women in the context of migration.

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS & WRITERS

 Mohamad Abdouni, Alaa Ammar, Arkadiusz Antosz, Forensic Architecture, Pia Arke, Eylem Atakav, Mariama Attah, Daniel C. Blight, Igor Chekachkov, Taous R. Dahmani, Karim El Maktafi, Avra Fialas, Borys Filonenko, Gem Fletcher, Loraine Furter, Jakob Ganslmeier, Karolina Gembara, Claus Gunti, Fabian Holle, Alfredo Jaar, Nadine Khalil, Grada Kilomba, Kim Knoppers, Anders Kold, Awa Konaté, Josef Koudelka, Ulrike Kremeier, Zeynep Kubat, Cat Lachowskyj, Mous Lamrabat, Oliver Leu, Stefanos Levidis, Rene Matić, Steve McQueen, Elisa Medde, Jeff J. Mitchell, Nina Möntmann, Now You See Me Moria, Richard Mosse, Renée Mussai, Tanja Ostojić, Ekin Özbiçer, Marina Paulenka, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, Anca Pusca, Vinca Petersen, Johny Pitts, Viacheslav Poliakov, The Archive of Public Protest, Lala Raščić, Kolja Reichert, Julian Röder, Silvia Rosi, David Rych, Fiepke van Niel, Mirelle van Tulder, Karolina Wojtas, Monica Youn, Akram Zaatari, Zahra

 Foam Magazine has been awarded several prizes for both its high-grade graphic design and the quality of its content. Most recently, Foam Magazine was awarded Photography Magazine of the Year at the Lucie Awards in 2017 and 2019.

 Foam Magazine is an international photography magazine, published three times a year by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam.

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