FRONT RUNNER

Sister fashion designers Kseniia and Elizaveta Fedorovy think of their timeless collection pieces as archives of their memories and emotions and as of potential vessels for creating new ones by future wearers. “We would like people to create their own context by wearing these pieces and continue the story we started by designing and tailoring them.”

While introducing two series of playful and cheery illustrations by Katarina Kratochvílová, a versatile artist living in Prague, the Czech Republic, we're slowly ushering in our upcoming theme for 2021.

French illustrator Gary Colin experiments with non-anthropomorphic, novelty, swarming and organic forms via a computer graphic programme to create living cartographies of other worlds.

Our last theme for 2020, FRONT RUNNER, is going out with Olympic-sized celebratory fireworks and red hot flashes of the signal gun. As usual, enjoy our very own fashion editorial as the proverbial cherry on top of the theme, this time inspired by two iconic video games. The best holiday present for us and for you – from us to you.

Do football goals suffer from occupational hazard? Belgian illustrator Léo Gillet gives us the answers to even more pressing questions in his detailed and multilayered pieces done with felt-tip pens, markers and pencils. Enjoy the exclusive SWARM Mag interview.

“I like to think of a romantic analogy between extreme sports and chivalry codes, which leads to a modern adaptation of romanticism,” says French artist Neckar Doll about his sometimes ominous objects. Find more in an exclusive interview for SWARM Mag below.

Belgian illustrator Paulien Verheyen is centered on the corporeal form in a celebratory, colourful and open-minded way. She also shared with us her thoughts on the rediscovering of creating just for oneself, shaking off the Instagram gaze and validations as a motivator.

This space wouldn't thrive as much without a semi-regular supply of poetry so we've called upon the first Poet Laureate of Plymouth, one of the earliest loyal fans of SWARM Mag and our friend Stephan Delbos to deliver us from this specific medium shortage. Accompanied by illustrations by Czech artist Mikoláš Zika. Enjoy a piece tailored to and inspired by our current umbrella topic – FRONT RUNNER

Russian artist Varya Yakovleva invites us into her active world of unbridled watercolour and free-hand pencil and charcoal drawings where mistakes are literally non-existent.

In an exclusive interview for SWARM Mag, Georgian retro-futuristic designer Lado Bokuchava, creating under a namesake brand, takes us behind the scenes of his SS 2021 collection, which carries distinct urban and race-car fashion elements.

A duo of art collaborators and life partners from Romania, Silvia Amancei and Bogdan Armanu focus on futuristic, hyper-accelerated scenarios with grim conclusions and playful, often animated aesthetics. From their sizable portfolio, we've selected two video works pertaining to our current quarterly theme of Front Runner.

Is masturbation a race? A contest? And if it is – with whom? Czech writer and anthropologist Zuzana Trachtová shuffles and deals out the playcards of the game of self-discovery and self-pleasure. The text is accompanied by delicate and symbolic illustrations by Czech artist Julie Daňhelová, which were custom made for SWARM Mag.

Scottish painter going by the artistic nickname of Craigie Harper created a fictional provincial town with inhabitants whose pride and joy is sports – and the incompetence in them.

Playful and bubblegum-y, the illustrations by Spanish artist Juan Vallecillos take us into an universe where everyone is sporty, colourful, sharply dressed, up to something, and a little bit tired.

“When you think outside of the box, you can reach interesting things,” says Hila Cohen, an Israeli fashion designer and triathlonist, making her collections out of sports garments doomed to be destroyed or unused forever.

In her essay, Czech writer Bára Čápová gives us an intricate look into the heyday and present state of a once-popular online world-building game still suspended “out there”. This piece was composed exclusively for SWARM Mag.

Via digital drawing techniques, Mirko Conte creates his own bold-coloured, smooth-surfaced worlds where his statuesque and majestic heroes and heroines pose in unabashed comfort with their naked form.

The autumn chills creep in and we are bringing you an easygoing interview with Romania artist Ștefan Tănase. His object and sculptural works mostly consist of dark-humoured still lives and tongue-in-cheek snippets stemming from his lived experience – currently the one of a delivery driver.

Devaja is a joint project of two Spanish artists, Rocio Soria de Vaja and Ana Pez, based in Madrid. Their INFLAMMATORY earring collection was shot on models with styling reminiscent of characters from Mortal Combat cut with a Street Fighter aesthetic.

Marie Lukáčová has been unapologetically trailblazing the field of “proletarian or perhaps precariat rap”. Stemming from video art with surreal narration and plots, she eventually took her audiovisual art a step further.