''Tank'' is an independent UK-based magazine launched in 1998.
It is a quarterly publication, printed in the UK, that covers contemporary culture, fashion, art, architecture, technology and politics. Since its launch, the Tank group has expanded to include Tank Form, tank.tv, TankBooks and ''Because'' magazine.
History
''Tank'' was launched by editor-in-chief Masoud Golsorkhi and art director Andreas Laeufer in September 1998. The first issue was published in the form of a thick, square, miniature book. Its slogan “Small tank, big fish” began a trend where thinkers, writers, artists and photographers could look beyond conventional areas of discussion.
In 2002, upon Laeufer’s departure, Caroline Issa was appointed the magazine’s publisher and fashion director. Issa was quickly established as a “perennial street style favourite” and “fixture on the fashion week circuit”.
Format and content
The magazine has produced a number of different incarnations: bulk pocket book, large wire-bound magazine and finally a rectangular perfect-bound edition.
It publishes with less adverts, no more than 5% of the content, and instead profits by charging a higher cover price.
Tank’s independent editorial platform takes its motto “Elitism for All” from a maxim by
Jean-François Lyotard
Jean-François Lyotard (; ; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and ...
. Each issue revolves around a speculative concept or theoretical framework. Past subjects have included: revolution, disorientation, reality, bubbles and the city. Ane Lynge-Jorlén described the magazine as one of the alternative fashion publications.
Tank Form
Launched in 2003, Tank Form is an independent, boutique creative agency that grew out of ''Tank'' magazine. It described itself as "specialist, not generalist
Special projects have included sponsored publications created for
Prada
Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding t ...
and
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...
. ''...And?'' was a pink broadsheet newspaper created for Prada. ''MINED'', a palindrome of the word ‘denim’, was a thick magazine created for Levi’s, it won the D&AD Yellow Pencil Editorial and Book Design Award in 2002.
TankBooks
TankBooks was launched in 2007 and features unabridged classics in the form of cigarette packs. Their release coincided with the ban on smoking in public places in the UK. Created for “lovers of literature and connoisseurs of design”. TankBooks repackages the works of
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...
,
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
,
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
...
,
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, Franz Kafka and
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
. The cigarette books received an
iF product design award in 2008.
O: Quarterly Fashion Supplement by Tank
''O: by Tank'' was a luxury fashion supplement created for
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
. It ran from 2005 to 2013 and focused on the world of fashion and beauty. Published four times a year, ''O:'' functioned both as a shopping guide and a source of inspiration for upcoming seasons.
tank.tv
Tank.tv, an online platform established in 2003, profiles contemporary artists, both emerging and prominent, that work specifically in moving image, film and video formats. Tank.tv collaborated on a number of events with international art institutions, including:
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
,
Kulturhuset
House of Culture (Swedish: Kulturhuset) is a cultural center situated to the south of Sergels torg in central Stockholm, Sweden. The House of Culture has been described as a symbol for Stockholm as well as of the growth of modernism in Sweden.
...
,
Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...
and the
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...
.
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...
winning artist
Laure Provoust directed Tank.tv from 2004-2011, initiating discussion with and invitations to artists, writers and curators including
Paul McCarthy
Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
Life
McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued ...
,
Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Elisabeth Rist (born 21 June 1962) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art. Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abstract art, having a preoccupation with the female bo ...
,
Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller (born 30 March 1966) is an English people, English conceptual, video and installation artist. Much of Deller's work is Collaboration, collaborative; it has a strong political aspect, in the subjects dealt with and also the Idealiz ...
John Latham Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Hans Ulrich Obrist (born 1968) is a Swiss art curator, critic, and historian of art. He is artistic director at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Obrist is the author of ''The Interview Project'', an extensive ongoing project of interviews. He is ...
,
Stuart Comer,
John Bock
John Bock (born 1965 in Schenefeld, Germany) is a German artist. He studied in Hamburg, Germany and lives and works in Berlin.
Work
Bock is a multi-media artist primarily known for his performances. Since 1991, he creates environments hand cra ...
and Negar Azimi. All work commissioned by and invited onto tank.tv is archived and available to view on the website,
In 2013, a decade after launching, tank.tv opened an exhibition space on Great Portland Street, London.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tank
1998 establishments in the United Kingdom
Cultural magazines published in the United Kingdom
Fashion magazines published in the United Kingdom
Magazines established in 1998
Magazines published in London
Quarterly magazines published in the United Kingdom