Issue 8 — Spring 2019
Real Review
This piece is part of the AAVVGG Archive and not currently part of the collection.
To be against from within is to identify critical concentrations of power, become experts in their internal logic, then develop methods for inhabiting and altering their operations. It is to pursue strategies that instrumentalise the oppressors in service of the oppressed. It is by no means a clean path. Trojan Horse attitudes pose many questions about authenticity, autonomy, agency and honesty.
Some contexts demand total stealth. However, without ideological transparency, there is little hope of systemic change. This requires a masterful control of seduction, desire and incentive; guiding by stages towards a radical idea. To play the game is now to game the system.
Is the strategy of the Trojan Horse viable? We interview CHELSEA MANNING on identity and autonomy, while VIRGIL ABLOH and JACK SELF review how to dissolve power structures. Meanwhile, WOLFGANG TILLMANS presents a 16-page special insert reviewing contemporary life. Comedian ELF LYONS reviews austerity Britain (with readymades by NICOLE MCLAUGHLIN), and JACOB DREYER reviews the current state of globalisation from the border of China and North Korea (with DPRK photography by YUYANG LIU). In two poems, SVETLANA MARICH reviews her desire for a doctor.
Also in the issue: JOHANN HARRI reviews depression and SHUMON BASAR reviews our obsession with fame. JACK SELF reviews "low batt" while EFE reviews the NYC blackout. PIER VITTORIO AURELI reviews the Italian radical Marxist autonomia movement, and SOPHIA ALAMI reviews the hijab. The rise and rise of streetwear is reviewed by JOHN-PAUL TRANG, meanwhile COLBY VEXLER and JUSTIN CLEMENS review the millennial obsession with houseplants. HOLLAND DRURY and DAMIAN FOPP review the power politics of the chaise longue.
24 × 11 cm
Softcover