If you’re still working in the creative industry and you’re reading this: we get it. It’s very, very hard to maintain moral integrity in an amoral world. There is no way to be innocent if you’re part of a generation that has been spoon-fed the spoils of past wars and more wars that were started as we impotently watched on in vintage 90’s social paralysis. The injustice that is so blatantly obvious all around you makes it impossible to avert your eyes without witnessing the next atrocity. There is no justice and the idea of karma is nothing more than a one-word compression of all things religious that caters to the rationally stunted yet spiritually needy. That still doesn’t mean that you should just go out and sell your undeniable skills as writers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers and, ehm, account managers to the first feudal lord who will take you under his roof – like a band of hired guns for the faceless cabal of multinationals. We are not asking you to climb onto the barricades and fling your burning Macbooks at the riot police; but it would be great if you could at least stop wasting your talents as creative mercenaries operating in a multibillion dollar moral vacuum. The term integrity can be more than a word on a briefing sheet in between a list of characteristics that a brand wants associated with them. It is possible for you to be funny, creative, touching and inspiring without selling a car, a pair of jeans or a life insurance policy. Just do it.

Is it unreasonable to think that the onslaught of commercial messages designed to make you buy stuff has caused us to throw up huge psychological barriers in our minds every time we step out the door? Has the idea of commercial communication seeped so deep into the cracks of our collective consciousness that the concept of non-trade-based human interaction has become alien to us? Go out and get your copy of POSTRmagazine #15: The Creative Issue, where we take a look into the wonder-less and uninspired world of the creative industry also known as the art-machine of the free market state!

Check out our list of stockists to see where you can find your copy of POSTRmagazine.

In December 2013 we did a live show on stroom.tv to announce the new issue that had just come out. One of our Monkeys With Typewriters became a Monkey With Turntables playing our favorite tracks and soundscapes which were mixed in with the content that was read out by a computer voice.
This show worked so well we realized that this was probably the best way to translate POSTRmagazine into a digital format.

So with the help of a man who calls himself No Sleep Richy we’ll be releasing mixtapes of all our issues. That’s right, there won’t be any iPad versions of POSTRmagazine coming any time soon. Instead we set out to investigate what a digital magazine format can be.

We bring you: What’s the Color of Money?
A rendition of POSTRmagazine #4: The Money Issue (2009), disturbingly mixed by Richy Rich and Brokeman Michy.

A 30 Minute Chat With Jan Hoet About Art
Curated by Michaël Bieriemans & Richy Richter

The great contemporary art director Jan Hoet, who organized multiple major exhibitions in Belgium, was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent and curated Germany’s Documenta art fair, has died on February 27.

“Mr. Hoet was known for his outspokenness and criticized art snobs and politicians who did not get the point of modern art. In the process, his rasping, down-to-earth style brought contemporary art within the reach of everyone, making him a beloved Belgian cultural icon. His fame spilled beyond the border and he became curator for major exhibitions from Germany to China.”
Associated Press

We interviewed Jan Hoet as an expert for our Art Issue back in 2010. The interview was an informal encounter in the man’s own home in Ghent.

In honour of Jan we decided to edit the entire interview and share it with the world.
Our editor Michaël and partner in sound Richy worked on this over the course of the two days following the passing of Jan Hoet.
We hope you enjoy listening to it.

In memory of Jan Hoet

Once again the great people at the BOZAR museum in Brussels are treating our readers to free tickets to go see the Michael Borremans exhibition.
We’re giving away 10 duo tickets and all you have to do is send us an email with your full name and address. That’s it!

Good luck, and may the fastest typing POSTRfan win!

UPDATE: All tickets are gone! Thanks for entering the competition!

Here’s a video explaining who Michaël Borremans is and a making of video of the ‘As sweet as it gets’ expo.

ON BECOMING THE MISSING LINK – HUMANITY’S GUIDE TO WHAT COMES AFTER

Alright kids, hop in the backseat of the Delorean and let’s take a ride into the future: a somehow strangely predictable place where everything is sort of the same but somehow different. Find out how your grandchildren will struggle in almost the same way you did and how the shadowy tradition of social inequality will hang over the heads of billions for generations to come!

It’s a long way off to the future – a place where individual human consciousness has collectively evolved to a higher plane, thus eliminating the need for primitive institutions like government, police and the tax office to keep tabs on all of us. There is a long way to go – we need only to look at ourselves to see firsthand the souvenirs of our primitive past. Yes, we think of ourselves as quite highly developed, but it only takes a look in some of the less public places to see mankind for what it is: a horny herd of hairy furry beasts, furiously engaged in mass mating behavior while hoarding more natural resources than we can ever hope to need. We are the first prototype to run this upgrade called ‘abstract consciousness’ – we are not the tweaked model, but the first try-out. Nature’s equivalent of man’s first steam engine. Dangerous, volatile and full of destructive energy. Raw and unrefined – after all, our entire operating system still runs on two primal forces – the fear of death and the urge to live, the 0 and 1 of our binary nature.

Yes, it will take a while before we all reach that level of humane development that is a prerequisite to the next step in our evolution. It is a long way up, and you can be sure that we are going to stumble and fall a lot of times before we reach that high peak above the clouds – the one that will give all of us our first glimpse of our next horizon, our next mountain to climb. The universe is undeniably a piece of art that evolves over time – and with us, it has managed to create a new part of itself that has the potential of interpreting the big picture it is itself a part of – maybe even understanding it. Fear not, my fellow countrymen – the future is nigh.