10.2.10
5-piece-paper on Dazed Digital.
5, THE MAGIC NUMBER
5preview are back with a new and ambitious project: a magazine and photographic exhibition in New York.
Text by Anna Battista | Published 09 February 2010
The last time 5preview’s Emeli spoke to Dazed Digital, the brand’s T-shirts had just started to invade the world’s shop windows. Since then the brand evolved, launched further designs, developed an accessory line and set higher goals to achieve, that is a magazine entitled 5-piece-paper and a photographic exhibition related to it that will open at New York’s Inven.tory next week. It looks like the number 5 has genuinely turned into a lucky and inspirational talisman for this young brand.
Dazed Digital: When did you first come up with the idea for the exhibition and why did you choose New York to launch it?
Emeli: We thought about the exhibition last Spring. After the label grew up, lots of creative people got in touch asking to collaborate with us. While I found some collaborators such as The Cobrasnake by myself, others like Francesco Ercolini, were complete surprises since we met them on the Internet. New York is a great place for networking because people are very open to new ideas, besides it’s also my favourite city, so it seemed like the perfect location to launch the exhibition. The event will then travel to the Flux Gallery in Umeå, a town in the north of Sweden selected to be European Capital of Culture in 2014.
DD: What inspired the exhibition and in which way is the exhibition connected with the magazine?
Emeli: The exhibition is directly inspired by the number five and the black and white aesthetics of the 5preview brand. This is why it features five photographers: Stockholm-based fashion photographer Fredrik Ottosson; fashion photographer Francesco Ercolini from la Spezia, Italy; Mark ‘The Cobrasnake’ Hunter’, the famous L.A. “party photographer”; Swedish Sanna Berger from the Vagabondset blog, and Camille Quancard, a Paris-based student who takes pictures with her Holga camera. Every photographer who took part in the project got a bag of 5preview garments and was given free rein. All of them came up with five images, so we got a total of 25 photographs that will be included in the exhibition. The event is strongly linked with the magazine since the first issue of 5-piece-paper is a sort of exhibition catalogue, it features indeed an interview with each photographer and all the images they took, one in poster-format.
DD: Where can we buy the magazine?
Emeli: The magazine, printed in 1,000 copies, will be distributed in some of the shops that stock the brand’s products, but you will also be able to buy it online from our shop.
DD: Are you planning to involve in the future issues of the magazine any artists, writers or graphic designers?
Emeli: I’m the magazine art director and I have been working closely with Studio OVE, a Stockholm-based graphic studio, to develop it. I’ve been using the 5preview blog to find new collaborators. The site is a sort of melting pot of people from all over the world and I find it refreshing from many different points of view because it was prompted by a healthy will to create rather than by the need to come up with a perfect product. We have lots of ideas and, from now on, every issue will have a special theme. For instance, we have been working on a special issue on famous or interesting people who somehow have got something to do with the 5preview label. For the next issue photographers will take their pictures and journalists will interview them. In future the magazine will focus on other topics such as DIY and innovative illustrators. The interaction between readers and magazine will remain a fundamental point of the publication.
DD: Is there an artist you’d like to organise an exhibition with?
Emeli: I recently saw Henry Rollins during his “Frequent Flyer” tour in which he goes through an explosive monologue that lasts for almost three hours. I would love to do something with him. His music always inspired me and three of his tattoos were turned into prints for 5preview shirts. He’s got an incredible energy and charisma and I think he would really be able to change the world if only more people would listen to what he’s got to say.
DD: The exhibition and magazine launch will take place during New York Fashion Week: will we be able to catch up with you at any other fashion events in Europe?
Emeli: Yes, you’ll be able to meet us soon in Copenhagen and probably also in Stockholm where we will have a party to open the new 5preview studio.
5-piece-paper magazine launch and the Five Photographers Exhibition by 5preview, Inven.tory, 237 Lafayette Street, New York, 15th February 2010, 7-9pm
