For the better part of history, the art world has been manoeuvred by wealthy institutions, making them inaccessible, rigid and highbrow. While there have always been efforts to counter this reality, we are nowhere near the end of this battle. It is also no secret that the world of art has been relying on funding that is difficult to get. Not to mention, sponsorships that are challenging to acquire, and an inherent elitism that is deeply ingrained within our wider society. All considered – it is almost impossible to shake.
Although one can reasonably claim to expect newer and smaller-in-size cultural initiatives to struggle financially – it is to this day a very real phenomenon that equally exists across large companies and publications. Indeed, even ´great´ institutions do not compensate their employees and contributors fairly. It is no wonder then, that over the last decade, more and more steps have been taken by younger generations to fight these institutionalised norms in the art world.
Mates magazine is one of these initiatives. Founded by Alexandros Nefeli, the publication held its launch in September. Following the successful debut, The Cold Magazine, sat down with Nefeli to discuss the origins, plans and his vision for mates moving forward.
“If I have a key, I´m going to open the door for as many people as I can fit through it”, begins Nefeli, whose experience with the art world has been dualistic. He, like Cold, doesn’t stand for competition between independent magazines, and is instead committed to accessible cultural spaces, against an increasingly “gatekeeping” art scene.
mates’ foundation stemmed from a conversation after Nefeli’s good friend, an emerging artist, applied to be featured in an online artistic space. It seemed attractive at first: the chance to be featured alongside other innovative creatives, to gain visibility and potentially further opportunities. Though this idealised vision shattered when the truth came out: “She was like, I have to pay 150 quid to get featured”.
Later, Nefeli asked her if she got anything worthwhile out of the experience. The answer was unfortunately negative. “That really infuriated me”, says Nefeli, who then promptly conceptualised the idea for mates.
Founding mates as a non-profit organisation was wholly intentional – yet Nefeli went into it somewhat blindly. “I didn´t know 90 percent of the stuff that I was doing, but I knew the intention was right.” His premise: “I just wanted to help young people in the arts.”
For the first edition of the magazine, Nefeli worked with seasoned professionals, emerging creatives and some who mates would feature publicly for the first time ever. “I wanted to give voice and space to the people I was representing. That’s why I named the first issue ‘mates supporting mates’”.
When you open a copy of mates, you are struck by the sense of collective authorship. “Everyone’s on the same level,” explains Nefeli. “mates is its own person, its own organism.”
mates is an active project, after having sold out of the first official launch, its on track for the call out ahead of its second issue. In May, the publication will be hosting a call out for Issue two, STRANGERS which will explore the “strange,” “stranger” and “other” in contemporary UK culture. This selection of works will be composed of work exclusively through UK early-career creatives across the arts. Open call submissions will open on www.matesmagazine.com.