A different kind of magazine
In external appearance regina could be yet another in the row of magazines that wants to dictate young women’s beauty ideal and lifestyle. The usual topics such as fashion, recipes and relationships are neatly packaged in a stylish design with the obligatory cover girl in place. But where magazines like Vecko-Revyn, Elle and Marie Claire construct the image of the good life regina presents totally different aspects on life. Editor-in-chief is the German artist Regina Möller, publisher is Moderna Museet Projekt.
The magazine regina is at first glance confusingly alike the magazines that claim to be every young woman’s best friend. But on closer examination completely different things hide behind the list of contents. The theme “Partnership” is neither about how to bring new excitement into one’s relationship or how to attract a man’s attention, but about the work with HIV-positive women’s network, Kvinnocirkeln Sverige (the Women’s Circle Sweden, transl. note), and their work with information and support. The headline “Fashion” does not deal with today’s trends but with the political and social ambitions behind the 1960’s design label for clothes, Mah Jong. Other topics, that experienced magazine readers at first thought they understood the meaning of, are dealt with in the same way.
Regina is an on-going project that uses different art institutions as a production place but distribution, context and audience are in completely different places. The edition “regina in Sweden” has Moderna Museet (the Modern Museum, transl. note) as a base but Presstop (Press stop, transl. note) as a distributor. “Regina in Sweden” is based on Swedish women’s lives and reflects the meaning of feminist achievements and feminist activities in our society.
What characterises regina, like the rest of artist Regina Miller’s work, is that it does not let itself be fitted into a specific category. Regina can be read as a subtle and telling criticism of life style magazines for young women, at the same time as the artist makes a playful use of the genre’s form and concept. In the same way regina is an exclusive art project but also a mass-produced and mass-distributed product. And last but not least, regina is produced in the context of art but presents material that could belong to an entirely journalistic and informative medium.
Through the deliberate shifts between different categories, forms of address and topics Regina Möller and the magazine regina leaves great possibilities for the reader and the art audience to choose their own perspective. At a quick browse-through or a careful examination everyone can focus on different pieces, change the main emphasis or even re-arrange the categorisation of topics in the magazine. In that way it becomes fully obvious that the portrayal of young women’s reality is far more complicated than the headlines in the usual life style magazines present it to be – which in its turn says something abut the absurdity of the magazine makers view of how the female readership should live and act. Logically the editor-in-chief Möller rejects the presentation of “the beauty of life” for the conveyance of “the mess of life”.