Tom Wilson's online emporium of fun

Return of the 'Zine
Tom Wilson 14.05.04

At 100 Euros a copy, it's the ultimate luxury magazine on the Romanian market. ‘Incepem' has blazed a trail in Romania, and looks like it's started a movement that won't be stopped.

Contrary to popular belief, the UK isn't all White Cube galleries and Britpop concerts. Cultural life in the majority of the British provinces means a soft-rock tribute band at the local pub and a kebab on the way home. If you're lucky. This was particularly true of my own experience of growing up in what is usually romantically referred to as ‘a northern mill-town'. For many people like myself, self-consciously fashionable magazines such as ‘The Face' or ‘i-D' had a special part to play in providing access to a world that seemed a million miles from the small-town mentality of small-town England. So it was with great sadness that I learned of the closure of The Face, a publication that for 25 years positioned itself at the forefront of every successive youth movement, from Acid House to Justin Timberlake. Limited-edition trainers; the war in Iraq; Big Brother celebrities; they all found themselves under the publication's knowingly critical eye. A magazine for men and women, for gays and straights, for council-estate clubbers and the London in-crowd, The Face simply stopped being profitable.

It's similarly sad that that no such publication exists in Romania. Youth are instead growing up with their cultural expectations set for them by tiresomely conservative gender-specific lads/girls mags. Perhaps in an attempt to disguise their frequently poor quality, the Romanian press seems to be trying to make amends by sheer quantity. This is a country where there are simply too many newspapers and magazines.

Against this unpromising backdrop, enter ‘Incepem'. It looks like a style magazine. It reads like a style magazine. Its contributors include some of the country's most talented artists, graphic designers, writers, photographers and all-round creative-types. It has a suitably hefty price-tag. And, for additional excitement in an era when consumers have a healthy disregard for all things mass-produced, it's ultra-limited edition. One copy will set you back a sweet 100 Euros. And only ten copies of each issue are ever produced.

However, unlike the limited-edition high-fashion mags that can be found changing hands for large sums of money in New York and London, Incepem is a fanzine. Though fanzines previously enjoyed a sporadic and underground existence, it was the punk movement of the late 1970's that became irreversibly associated with the art-form. At a time when the mainstream press had yet to wake up to the commercial opportunities that punk-rock presented, fanzines plugged the gap. Indeed, the low-budget, roughly photocopied scribbles of now-legendary fanzines such as Mark Perry's ‘Sniffin' Glue' were the transferral of the punk ethic into print. Talent or professionalism weren't required. What counted was the democratising effect that the medium had.

In a similar manner, anyone who wants to can contribute to Incepem. Any kind of editorial role is reduced to ensuring that each contribution roughly fits the theme of the issue, that the offering is A4 in size and reproduced in ten copies. Contributions have come from as far afield as Holland, Spain, Austria and Serbia, ranging from professionally glossy photographs and pull-out sheets of stickers, to Xeroxed drawings and pages of painstakingly reproduced typewriter texts. The results are then bound to make ten fanzines.

“The fact that the magazine doesn't have a coherent graphic identity to maintain is a good thing, rather than a disadvantage”, explained Vlad Nanca, the man who masterminded the fanzine from conception to completion. “The emphasis is on variety. The first issue, which had the theme of ‘Chemistry' and was launched last month, had 37 different contributors. No two pieces were similar. Everyone interpreted the theme in their own way.”

“Since we only make ten copies, circulating the magazine becomes an exercise in itself. Editions of Incepem have been passed around all over – to Cluj, Iasi, Brasov, Timisoara. Just making sure people get to see the magazine is a way of bringing together Romania's artistic community. The whole idea was to create a wider awareness of a whole generation's creativity.”

With only ten copies printed, it's disputable whether Incepem can even be considered a fanzine. The whole project more resembles an artistic experiment. “I guess that's how we see it,” Vlad continues. “We're even thinking of doing a single issue of a huge fanzine – one metre tall and over half a metre wide. People would be able to contribute as usual, and the end result would then by put on display in a gallery.”

However, like the original punk fanzines, Incepem has become something of a creative catalyst, encouraging like-minded people to start their own publications. “We wouldn't pretend to be the first Romanian fanzine,” explained Stefan Tiron who helped compile Incepem #1. “However, it's certainly introduced the idea to a much wider audience. After Incepem was circulated in Brasov, a group there got together to start a similar project. And we've heard of the same thing happening in Timisoara.”

“It's an indication of just how much creative talent is out there,” Tiron continued, “that the second issue had more than 40 contributors. And they're mostly completely different people from those who contributed to the first.”

The good news is that the second issue of Incepem has recently been completed. Based around the theme of ‘Cheap', the launch of issue #2 will be held at the Web Club, Blvd Ion Mihalache 12, Wednesday 19 th May, 20:00. Buy one for the artist in your life.

Go to www.2020.ro to view the Incepem fanzine online and learn more about future issues. You can also find contact information regarding purchasing a copy for yourself.