The first cover of the fictional magazine The Sevillaner It is a parody of the Sevillian version of the dandy Eustace Tilleycreated by the artist Rhea Irvinwhich appeared in 1925 in number 1 of the magazine The New Yorkerone of the references in the US of the report—. Instead of a monocle, a glass of Oloroso. On the wrist, bracelets with the flags of Spain and Andalusia. And, of course, abundant hair gel and sideburns.
“Paris –with The Parisian– was the first city that wanted to pay this tribute to the magazine The New Yorker. He did it through creation of fictional illustrated covers. There was more and more impact and this project began to multiply in different cities,” he explains to Public Paloma Marquezfrom Manifesto Taller, in the Royal Artillery Factory of Seville, where the OFFF design and creativity festival.
On the walls, as an exhibition within OFFF, hang the first 50 illustrations—there are 61 and they usually release one each week—that artists and illustrators have created for The Sevillaner. The project was born as such a little over a year ago and collect covers for a fictional magazinewhich does not exist, made by artists from Seville or who have some connection or develop their professional activity in the city.
The seed is in the Sevillian illustrator Antonio Copetewho back in 2017, created the first fictitious covers as work for a typography and layout class, in which he was asked to create a fictitious magazine, as he explains The Sevillaner in your Web page. There arose the idea of the parody of Irvin’s dandy through a classic character from the Seville Fair: “The typical gentleman in a jacket, slicked, posh and with a posh booth.”
This way of honoring The New Yorker and the idea of telling contemporary life through illustrations from a fictitious magazine in the form of a vindication of the urban, the commonhas prospered in numerous cities around the world—Tokyo, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Madrid, Genoa, Bologna…—. In Andalusia, in addition to The Sevillaner projects like The Onubenserin Huelva, and The Gaditanerin Cádiz, and others.
“I have seen how the project has evolved and grown and it is super interesting. The truth is that It has a bit of a snowball effect, which is getting bigger and bigger and people know it more and share it more,” says the illustrator Anna Payanauthor of The Sevillaner number 28, sitting next to Márquez.
In Seville, the origin is in Manifesto Taller, a space for coworking. “The four people who are currently managing the project have coincided in the same workspace. We are designers, illustrators, animators. We all have to do with the world of illustration and design. After knowing The Parisianer and to know The Barcelonanian We pulled the rug out from under us and started contacting illustrator friends first. The response was positive and with emotion and, as a result, we already said: Come on, let’s formalize the project“says Márquez.
The illustrations collect a polyhedral and modern look at the icons of the city. They also have their critical point and reflection on what is happening, such as the cover number 50 of Tavo, which collects a yellow suitcase, which leaves a trail of oranges – in Seville there are numerous bitter orange trees, it is a common sight – bursting in its wake. passed. The project, as a whole, break a spear for a modern and open citywhich reinterprets its traditions from multiple sensibilities, precisely those of collage of artists who prepare the proposals.
“We are doing something well,” reflects Márquez, “in the sense of raising awareness, which was a bit of the idea of the project as well: we are going to value the artists and we are going to take pride in the city in some way in a contemporary way, which also The vision was needed, We are going to update the collective image imagination of Sevillethat there are many very valuable contemporary artists who give very different discourses”.
Orange blossom
One of the fictitious covers, number 28, also plays with oranges, white doves and an intangible, the smell of orange blossom. The illustration of Anna Payanon a brief moonlit night, refers to the smell of bitter orange trees in bloom, that aroma so particular to the beginning of spring in Seville.
This is how Payán explains the idea: “I’m Catalan. I’ve lived here for four years and I came here for the first time for seven, so I’m well-versed in the city and when I started to think about what I liked most about Seville or what I connected more, always [acudo a] my first memory. The first thing I visited was the María Luisa Park. The white doves really caught my attention. In Barcelona they are very gray and the colors are so dull.”
“Seville,” the artist continues, “is a city of strong colors and contrasts and an artist is also very inspired by that. The light. It was very clear to me that it had to be a very orange cover with obviously the orange tree in bloom. I came at the time when the orange blossom was beginning to bloom. And for me Seville is that. “Looking at a tree, seeing a dove with an orange branch.”
Does the project have some type of journalistic vocation and meaning? “I wish,” Márquez responds, “there could be a magazine behind it, but it is very difficult to carry out a journalistic project. It’s something we keep thinking about. Our intention at some point is to make a compilation book of everything, which is not just in sheets. “The project today is financed by the sales of prints, postcards, posters and calendars.”
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