ELASTE: Last Exit, First Return
From DIY zines to AI manifestos—culture never dies, it mutates.ELASTE was born in the noise of photocopiers and subway nights, shaped by pop culture, politics, and the restless pulse of early ’80s New York. Forty years later, it wakes again—rewired with AI, but carrying the same refusal to conform. This isn’t nostalgia. It’s a remix. A last exit that became a first return.
ELASTE 1980–1986 — The Book
Apparently, the ’80s weren’t done with us.
Thomas Elsner and Michael Reinboth have unearthed ELASTE — our restless, neon, and nicotine-stained child — and turned it into a 560-page time capsule. Published by DCV, Elaste 1980–1986 brings back the magazine’s beautiful confusion: Warhol, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, DAF, and the naïve belief that pop could still save the world.
Now reissued as a best-of anthology, Elaste. 1980–1986 collects original photographs, interviews, and essays from the magazine’s sixteen issues — featuring icons like Andy Warhol, Boy George, and Keith Haring — alongside new reflections by its founders and contributors. It’s a document of an era when print was bold, culture was experimental, and style had an opinion.
Available from DCV Books: Hardcover edition, 560 pages, bilingual version, set to be released on November 19.
Sniffin' Glue
The Making of ELASTEDINNER WITH ANDY
The King of Pop Art, our biggest inspiration, and the most enormous influence in contemporary art were coming to visit the Hinterland.
Always be Sceptical About Simplicity
Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones (Deutsch)
You can't always get what you wantHero For One Day
Fool For a Life TimeP.L.O.
REBEL REBEL
VISIONS OF CHINA
Looking for the Thin White Duke
Joi Trouvé
DA DA DASOUNDS AND VISION
We are the Goon Squad and we're Coming to Town.
THE GERMAN DAYS
The Video Japan Never Made—and Couldn’t Have
This video feels less like a remix and more like a return. A loop quietly closing. When Nightporter first appeared, it belonged to a different production universe entirely. ELASTE was made with scissors, glue, Letraset,...
From Duchamp to Demna
When a urinal became art and a hoodie became luxury, something truly magical happened — context started printing money. Luxury Readymade: When Context Costs £1,590 Once upon a time, Marcel Duchamp bought a urinal, signed it R. Mutt,...
Iggy Pop: An Age-Defying Force of Nature, Still Rocking the Stage
Iggy Pop has been a constant presence since his early days. I vividly remember attending his live performances in the 1980s, and each time, my excitement was through the roof. His collaborations with David Bowie, notably the groundbreaking albums "The Idiot" and "Blah...
Pepsi, Pop, and Paradox: The ’80s Bowie-Turner Collaboration
Back to the '80s: a haze of neon lights, big hair, shoulder pads, and a seemingly endless supply of enthusiasm for all things audacious. This era gave us the goofy Pepsi commercial featuring David Bowie and Tina Turner. Decades later, the ad feels like a time capsule...
Watermelon Sugar
When Pop Culture Icons Met: Andy Warhol and Tina Turner’s Unforgettable Encounter In the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York City was a boiling pot of emerging talent, cutting-edge artistry, and vibrant social scenes. This era saw a blurring of the lines between art,...
Photography Is Dead
Wim Wenders, the iPhone, and the Tragic Demise of an Art Form Smartphones have accomplished what centuries of technical advancements couldn't: they've killed photography. Yes, you heard it right. The art of capturing moments, emotions, and stories through a lens is...
Sleaford Mods: ‘The UK is like a crazy golf course’
“A lot of these politicians, they’re not evil. They’re just very detached,” says Jason Williamson, singer and lyricist of the Sleaford Mods. “I’d like to say it’s not just bounteous privilege, but it is. People like Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, they’re incredibly cut...
CHATGPT about ELASTE
Shame – “Food For Worms” Review: Londoners Expand their Horizons
A Sonic Exploration of Friendship and Evolution A high-energy punk offering with incisive lyrics, dynamic performances, and skillful production. 'Food For Worms,' Shame's third record, starts steadily before plunging into keen commentary: "You're complaining a lot /...
Depeche Mode on Death, Rebirth and Defying the Odds
Most Bands are still around, but only a few are still relevant and contemporary. Depeche Mode is one of them. In the beginning Eighties Hanover was a great space to listen to live music. In Klaus Ritgen's "Rotation" and the infamous "Ballroom Blitz" every aspiring...
David Byrne and Miley Cyrus Dance Their Way Into 2023
This New Year's Eve performance of David Bowie's "Let's Dance", was a fitting tribute to the late David Bowie and the pulsating energy of 80s New York. Cyrus and Byrne's collaboration was a beautiful homage to the spirit of artistic innovation that both Bowie and...
It was always a good night to go to CBGB.
Post, Punk, Pop and Postmodernism: The Trendsetting 80s
New York’s Fashion New Guard
Elena Velez, Willy Chavarria, and Theophilio’s Edvin Thompson – are three visionary designers shaping New York’s independent fashion landscape. Ahead of their respective SS23 shows during New York Fashion Week, they discuss their brands’ origin stories, what drew them...
![Forty Years Ago Today, Simple Minds Changed Everything with “New Gold Dream [81,82,83,84]”](https://elastemgzn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/SimpleMinds-400x250.png)
Forty Years Ago Today, Simple Minds Changed Everything with “New Gold Dream [81,82,83,84]”
Disc of brilliant things… This day in 1982, Simple Minds released their game-changing opus, “New Gold Dream [81, 82, 83 84].” Let’s review our thoughts as written several years ago when we spent half a year poring over the career of Simple Minds on a mighty Rock...
Songs for Europe
What music did Bowie and Iggy listen to in 1970s Berlin? A new compilation, named after one of Bowie’s local haunts Cafe Exil, offers a speculative guide to the pair’s soundtrack favorites. Do your wurst ... Iggy Pop and David Bowie in Berlin. Photograph: Rex...
Moonage Daydream review – a glorious, shapeshifting eulogy to David Bowie
What dreams may come … Moonage Daydream. Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream is a 140-minute shapeshifting epiphany-slash-freakout leading to the revelation that, yes, we’re lovers of David Bowie and that is that. It’s a glorious celebratory montage of archive material,...
As Andy Warhol’s $195 Million ‘Marilyn’ Makes Auction History, We Look Back on the Artist’s 11 Priciest Works
Pop artist and film-maker Andy Warhol. Photo by Express Newspapers/Getty Images. All eyes were on the Christie’s New York salesroom on Monday as Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, the second-highest price ever paid for an...
Venus in Furs
The House presents the Gucci Love Parade campaign envisioned by Alessandro Michele. Portraying the modern myth of cinema through a sequence of obsessions and desires, the campaign transforms into a tale of characters...
In Praise of Copying
What if copying, rather than being an aberration or a mistake or a crime, is a fundamental condition or requirement for anything, human or not, to exist at all? Is there anything that does not involve "copying"? And if that is the case, why exactly does copying...
Downtown 1981
In 1981, writer and Warhol associate Glenn O’Brien, Swiss photographer Edo Bertoglio, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti innovator and noise music artist who’d just begun to exhibit his paintings, hit the streets of lower...
Find a New City
Move to the Big City with nothing, make friends, make art, struggle, but make it. There’s a very romantic American story that I love, that lots of artists who are young and starting out love, too, and it goes like this: Move to the Big City with nothing,...
The Art of Punk: Winston Smith and the Dead Kennedys
“If you use a razor blade and glue, you can suddenly change the world.” —Winston Smith Terrific 15-minute documentary of collage artist, Winston Smith, and his collaborator, Jello Biafra, about the origins of their work. When he saw the Dada-esque posters of punk...
How Luxury Fashion Extends Brand Identity Through Art
Mixing Paintings, Sculptures, Coats, Leather Bags and Sneakers Where Art, Culture, and Commerce Intersect Across the street near the corner of Crosby and Howard Streets just a block away in the edge of New York’s Chinatown on one early evening, a series of TV monitors...
Faceless Collection Pays Tribute to Idols by Way of Neorealistic Style with a Touch of Pop
Published to coincide with an exhibition at Maddox Gallery Westbourne Grove, Coco Dávez’s first book is packed with famous figures – all bright and boldly painted, all without a face. Dávez (the alter ego of Valeria Palmeiro) having worked with Chanel, Kenzo, Prada...
Warhol Foundation Loses Prince Appropriation Appeal
An appeals court ruled that Andy Warhol violated a photographer’s copyright by appropriating her image for a silk-screen he did in 1984. Andy Warhol’s ”Prince,” which became the subject of a court case over copyright issues.The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual...
Afropunk ‘s Not Dead
The Stars of Afropunk Festival – In Pictures Since 2005, Afropunk has celebrated the music, fashion, and beatboxing of black artists – and seen the crowd swell to 70,000. Phil Knott talks us through who he’s photographed there. Comedian, beatboxer, and musician Reggie...
Dinner With Andy
The ELASTE squad had two icons who stood the test of time: Andy Warhol and David Bowie. The King of Pop Art, our biggest inspiration, and the most enormous influence in contemporary art were coming to visit the Hinterland. Thomas loved his silkscreen prints...
Every Place Is the Same
No place places, with a phone, anywhere else is always just a tap away. Anywhere has become as good as anywhere else. Those old enough to remember video-rental stores will recall the crippling indecision that would overtake you while browsing their shelves. With so...
Artists Become Famous through Their Friends, Not the Originality of Their Work
While past studies have suggested that there is a link between creativity and fame, Ingram and Banerjee found, in contrast, that there was no such correlation for these artists. Rather, artists with a large and diverse network of contacts were most likely to be...
Andy Warhol on Junk Food, Coca-Cola, Drugs, Painting, and God
by Christian Wegner This interview was conducted at the third Factory, at 860 Broadway, in June 1977. It took 90 minutes — or the time of one full tape. I had thoughts about some of the questions, but mostly the interview was improvised. Andy was really on that day....
Poundshop Kardashians
I drink and watch the zoo in motion Beautiful people devoid of emotion Sterilized, pedicured, pedigrees and mankind Thick as fuck and soulless And no longer fear genocide It’s gonna end from what I reckon As I puke my guts...
Advice for Young Creatives
“Destroy your computer,” says Jamie Reid when asked what guidance he would give young artists. “Most jobs are about enslavement, break free if you can.” It’s the sort of no-nonsense advice you’d expect from a man who has spent five decades on the cultural frontline,...
Jenny Holzer on the Power of the Word in Art
As her work goes on display as part of a new group show, the provocative artist reflects on a career making the written word an art form. In the beginning was the word, and the word was art – though rarely do we conflate the two. Image and text are largely considered...
Takashi Murakami & Virgil Abloh – ‘Future History’ @ Gagosian (London)
Coinciding with London Fashion Week 2018, Gagosian presents “future history,” collaborative works by Takashi Murakami and Virgil Abloh. Working together in Murakami’s Tokyo studio, Murakami and Abloh have produced a unique series of works in which their styles and...
China’s Youth Breaking
Through The Great Firewall. In the latest installment of Global Street Style, i-D gets to know Shanghai's bold new generation of artists, designers and musicians working their way around China's Great Firewall. With a strong focus on nurturing local sounds and...
Ma' Ma' Raschplatz Da
»Just what is it that makes today’s home so different, so appealing?«
(Richard Hamilton, 1956)
Wenn der Postmann zweimal klingelt, liegt meist ein kleines Kärtchen in meinem Flur. So auch diesmal »Basement« Hannover Raschplatz. Eröffnung Freitag 12.6.81 22h. Knapp am dreizehnten vorbei, dachte ich und lenkte meinen Wagen einige Tage später durch die trostlose Gegend hinter dem Bahnhof. Beinahe am Ziel angelangt ging ́s dann auch noch in den Keller. Gleißende Leuchtstoffröhren, Pirelli Gummi auf dem Boden, die Decke unverkleidet, hier und da ein bißchen Chrom. Der erste Blick signalisiert, hier wollte jemand der Café– und Diskothekenszene mit ihren pastellfarbigen, schimmernden Barocktempeln eine Ohrfeige verpassen.“
