NO / EN
Available Now: Side
Magazine, The Moped Rider
18.01.2022
Collage by Yasmine d’O.
Bergen Assembly, our convener Saâdane Afif, and executive editor Yasmine d’O. are pleased to publish the second issue of Side Magazine, dedicated to the figure of the Moped Rider.
Side Magazine is conceived of as a site of research, each issue giving shape to one of the seven characters of The Heptahedron, a play written by the French author Thomas Clerc in 2016. These characters will become the motifs guiding the seven exhibitions of the upcoming edition of Bergen Assembly. The first issue introduced readers to the Professor, and upcoming issues will reveal the figures of the Bonimenteur, the Fortune Teller, an Acrobats, the Coalman, and the Tourist.
So, dear Moped Rider, what are you hiding under your helmet?
Lars Ole Kristiansen invites readers onto the back of his moped to follow Nanni Moretti’s Vespa along the first chapter of his movie Caro Diario (1993), Patrick Jagoda compares the figure of the Moped Rider with the open-world gamer, exploring digital and networked worlds. Michèle Bernstein, in the reprint of the second chapter of her autofiction All the King’s Horses (1960), opens a window onto the lives of characters Gilles and Carole via their late-night meandering around a 1960s Paris. Pierre-Henry Frangne takes the eternal movement of the Moped Rider into more abstract territories, following the serpentine lines of the Baroque arabesque into the volutes of Symbolist poetry. Considering the Centre Pompidou’s 1985 exhibition Les Immatériaux (The Immaterials or The Non-Materials), Yasmine d’O. with Marcella Lista, chief curator at the Centre Pompidou, and the French curator and writer Lou Ferrand, discuss the role of the visitor in the exhibition. Kristian Vistrup Madsen analyses the series of paintings Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819–1930) by Caspar David Friedrich, which never would have seen the light of day had the artist not poked his nose outside his studio. And to close this second issue, Haci Akman recounts the mythification of the mountains he calls home — the Seven Mountains of Bergen, and the sense of belonging that envelops their inhabitants.
The editorial committee for The Moped Rider is comprised of Saâdane Afif, Anna Bühler, Alix Chambaud, Louisa Elderton, Jonas von Lenthe, Yasmine d’O., Tatiana Rybaltchenko, and Pit Stenkhoff.
Executive Editor: Yasmine d’O.
Concept: Saâdane Afif
Chief Editor: Louisa Elderton
Associate Editor: Jonas von Lenthe
Editorial Coordinator: Alix Chambaud
Research Assistant: Tatiana Rybaltchenko
Proofreader: Hannah Satz
Translations: Katia Porro, Victor Szepessy,
and Sunniva Vik
Graphic Design: Neue Gestaltung, Berlin
Bergen Assembly thanks the City of Bergen and the Arts Council of Norway for supporting this project. Side Magazine, The Moped Rider is also supported by Fundació Antoni Tàpies.
Side Magazine is published by Wirklichkeit Books.
Order your copy:
Within Norway, or elsewhere, Wirklichkeitbooks.com.
Bergen Assembly 2022
Exhibition: 08.09. — 06.11.2022
Opening Days: 08.09. — 11.09.2022
