Extra Extra bills itself as a ‘nouveau magazine erotique’. Within its covers you are invited to cosy up to playwrights, philosophers, directors and artists as they share both sultry and dreamy thoughts about their lives and practice. Justine Gensse, its managing editor, explains why we should read all about it.
Can you explain the origins of Extra Extra and what your intentions were in creating this ‘nouveau magazine erotique’?
The erotic content is often left in a dusty corner of a page in magazines or lonely search on the internet, it constitutes the hidden part, the implied element in literary writings and artistic content. Extra Extra has aimed to make this secretive part conspicuous, something that is out there and available for readers find pleasure in reading about sensuality and city life. As regards the format of the magazine, we love to offer a tactile experience, that can be private or shared, as it can be given as a present or kept on your nightstand. Extra Extra is an intimate or shared gesture. Also, the magazine enables to build a continuous voyage with our readers and contributors, as we have new stories to tell and places to explore. That’s the magical element of the magazine, we can be connected to Seoul’s stimuli and street lights while pacing Rotterdam’s harbor where our office is based. Thus, the digital platform extends the paper magazine, by softly connecting Extra Extra to several corners of the world and fostering communication with our dearest contributors. On our website, we advise bars, flower shops and night clubs recommended to each other, places we heard could enchant our readers. There are also playlists concocted with love, as Extra Extra is most importantly a sensuous, sensible and physical gathering that creates a common and scattered erotic experience worldwide.
The term ‘erotique’ is applied to content from a rather intellectual and artistic perspective. Have you a definition in terms of what it represents to you and your readers? What does the future of ‘erotique’ look like?
The erotica is endless and connects to the arts, there is no limitation and no restriction. Perhaps the erotic can be perceived as the bridge between public life and culture, in the way that the magazine is available in kiosks, railways stations and also in artistic institutions. Extra Extra is thus an encounter. In a way, the erotic can no longer be considered as a taboo in public life. The magazine combines popular culture with artistic endeavours, and that’s where the erotic leads towards wider visibility and openness within the artistic field. The challenge in the end is to generate ways of presenting sensuality and city life, and how both interact.
How do you go about selecting content for each edition and what criteria do you apply for ensuring an editorial fit with your stated vision?
There is a wide range of desires, it can be lustful, rebellious, restless or tranquil, it simply depends on what mood you are in! The Extra Extra way is to foster eclecticism through tenderness, the exciting, and the unpredictable. This unpredictability also applies to selecting publications and commissioning interviews. We try to be open to voices from friends, editors, curators or someone who whispers something in our ears. In a way the erotic vision is on a journey, evolving and the editorial fit is friendliness.
The current edition has interviews with the Thai independent film director, screenwriter, producer and Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul as well as Matthew Beaumont, the author of Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London. Can you tell us about some of the other interviews you are particularly proud of? Do you seek to ensure the interviewer has a pre-existing relationship with the interviewee?
The erotic content gives importance to the particular and the intimate. Therefore, we give equal space to all contributors in our heart and we are really proud of the relationships we create between different artists rather than the individual. Our lovely contributors live around the corner or on the other side of the globe. Sometimes interviews are made via Skype or in person. We have personal connections with some photographers, artists, curators such as Paul Dallas, Natasha Hoare, Fatos Ustek, Nico Krijno, Ari Versluis who facilitate the elocution of desire. Though we cannot always meet writers or artists in real life, there is a mutual recognition in what kind of erotic city life we like to share.
You have expanded the magazine to encompass ancillary aspects such as talks, projects and city guides. Can you tell us more about these?
Extra Extra extends its endeavours into a physical realm through public programming, symbiotically connecting local and international culture with urban, sharing daring ideas and experiences in a safe haven, which either fictional or true, are the aphrodisiac of this moment. The program includes readings of commissioned literature writing, performances, music and a film programme. You are more than welcome to join us!
Issue No. 9 is out now, €15
Words: Michael McDermott
