Anja Dietmann

The notion of a mother seems simple enough. But just one shy cut beneath the surface lies a multitude of facets, problems, questions, contradictions and wonders all connected to the idea of maternity. Biologically speaking, every person has a mother; perhaps it is the one fact we all have in common. Nevertheless this issue, dedicated to Mother, raises more questions than it is able to answer. Precisely because everyone appears to understand what a mother is, many crucial aspects of the topic are never questioned and are instead taken as a given. Is a mother defined by just having a child, or is it a child that defines the mother? Can we look at the mother without assuming womanhood? Can we untie the gendered attributes bound to the role of a mother? And what exactly are the notions of gender and sex that are connected to the common idea of motherhood? Where do they stem from? What kind of social, biological and economic pressure do mothers and potential mothers face?

In this issue, we explore alternative family structures and how responsibilities of parenting might be shared; prevailing working conditions for mothers in the arts; difficulties, challenges and prejudices mothers face in their professional lives, and what an ideal work environment might look like. Simultaneously, this issue deals with disappointments and unfulfilled expectations in the mother-child relationship, and again at that relationship in the social context. We picture the past and the present in the process of envisioning what maternity could look like in the future

Contributors 
Adrian Williams, A.L. Steiner, Alexander Rischer, A.M. Bang, Andrew Stone, Anne Döring, Axel Loytved, Burk Koller, Ceyenne Doroshow, Eva Ďurovec, Flaka Haliti, Hanne Lippard, Henrik Olesen, Johannes Sturm, Julie Béna, Katharina Bosse, Lauren Strom-Berg, Lena Greene, Lila de Magalhaes, Lili Reynaud Dewar, Matheus Rocha Pitta, Nadine Droste, Nicola Gördes, Nicolaas Schmidt, Patricia Gray, Penny Goring, Peter Piller, Raphaela Vogel, Stella Rossié, Ulla von Brandenburg, Vincent Ramos.

The meaning of the word ‘error’, in its origin, is neutral. In Latin ‘errare’ means both ‘to wander freely’ and ‘to wander from the right path’. After the seventeenth century, however, the word ‘error’ lost its ambiguity within English usage and became clearly understood as wrongdoing, as defect, as a way of missing a desired effect. The ninth issue of Pfeil Magazine focuses on the potential of erroneous processes to redefine the meaning of malfunction and takes a look at movements that are aimless or non-productive. Through this reflection, ‘error’ is introduced once again as the possibility of wandering freely. 

Contributions by: Mitchell Anderson, Christiane Blattmann, Adam Christensen, Tyler Coburn, Hans-Christian Dany, Michael Dean, Gina Fischli, Flaka Haliti, Laëtitia Badaut Haussmann, Lina Hermsdorf, Judith Hopf, Karl Larsson, Clare Molloy, Susan Morgan and Thomas Lawson, Mense Reents, Stacy Skolnik, Paul Spengemann, Ramaya Tegegne 

Editors: Anja Dietmann, Nadine Droste

Within the format of a magazine, each page of Pfeil represents the floor, walls, or ceiling which together create an imagined room displaying a printed exhibition. Each issue is dedicated to a specific word, and artists are invited and given space to work on and with this term, and to construct or deconstruct the architecture around it. Combined, the contributions transform into an organic display surrounding the leitmotif. 

The tenth issue is dedicated to Mainstream, this volume questions exercised motions of majorities, practiced over long or short distances and timeframes, that can become patterns, sometimes taken for granted, sometimes followed unconsciously, automatically, or even mechanically. 

Contributions by: Alice Creischer, Annette Kelm, Charlotte Simon, Dodo Voelkel, Emily Pope, Hans-Christian Dany, Harry Gamboa Jr., Heike-Karin Föll, Holly White, Jan Matthé, Jannis Marwitz, Karl Holmqvist, Kevin Gallagher, Lars Bang Larsen, Magdalena Los, Marina Pinsky, Merle Radtke, Nicola Gördes, Pablo Schlumberger, Penny Goring and Stella Rossié.
Editor: Anja Dietmann

The eleventh issue of Pfeil Magazine looks into the multitude of meanings behind the word love: a positive affection and strong physical feeling which can be addressed to a friend, family, food, God, an object, or to an amorous partner or partners. Furthermore, it questions the expectations which go along with love, whether that love is returned or unanswered. Relationship patterns and role distributions are surveyed, vulnerabilities are assessed, but besides that the Love issue is also about a pregnant male seahorse, an infatuation with a smiling rock, sports and much more. 

Contributors: Adrian Williams, Anneli Schütz, CAConrad, Ceyenne Doroshow, Cyd Nova, Dan Kwon, Emily Pope, Eva Illouz, FORT, Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann, Gina Fischli, Hanna Fiegenbaum, Hans-Christian Dany, Keenan Jay, Maria Jakobsen, Mette Sterre, Monika Baer, Nick Oberthaler, Lindsay Lawson, Stine Sampers, Suné Woods, Theodore Barrow, Thomas Laprade, Vanessa Place and Vincent Ramos.

Written and edited in Biarritz, Borgerhout and Midsommarkransen, 2016—2021. Dedicated to Räffi, with much love. Another version of this text was published in Pfeil Magazin 10 (Montez Press, 2018); editor: Anja Dietmann, copy-editor: Stacy Skulnik. Epigraph from Numéro Deux (1975) by Anne-Marie Miéville and Jean-Luc Godard. Presented on Saturday February 5th 2022 at Kransen, Borgerhout.

128x201mm, 40p, staple bound. Riso-printed on Arcoprint Edizioni Avorio 90g and Clairefontaine Blue 210g. Design by Kaye–Matthé, typefaces: Tribute, Gillies Gothic Light. Printed by Risiko Press at Kransen, covers silkscreened at Afreux, bound by Drukkerijcollectief De Wrikker. Edition of around 200.