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.

#1 The Hannover Mitte

Cris and Michael met at the legendary CASABLANCA in Hannover. Cris just returned from his first trip to New York and inspired by the scene was saying: “I want to publish a magazine.” Michael: “Me too.” We started the next day, snatched Thomas from the turntables at CASABLANCA.  No experience, no funds, no computer, lot’s of glue, fun and music. Three months later ELASTE was launched.

#2 The Robots

#3 The Andy Warhol

#4 The Russians

#7 The Sport and Recreation

#8/9 The Classic

#10 The Psychedelic

#12/13 WHY?

#14 The Patsies

#15 Punk macht dicken Arsch

#16 The Heavy Metal

Sniffin' Glue

The Making of ELASTE

DINNER WITH ANDY

The King of Pop Art, our biggest inspiration, and the most enormous influence in contemporary art were coming to visit the Hinterland.

IN FLAMMEN

DOCUMENTA BOUND – KASSELER KREUZ
Feel the Burn

Always be Sceptical About Simplicity

Ping Pong mit den Rolling Stones (Deutsch)

You can't always get what you want

Hero For One Day

Fool For a Life Time

P.L.O.

REBEL REBEL

Looking for the Thin White Duke

Joi Trouvé

DA DA DA

"Ein Jahr (Es geht voran),"or "the Great Regression".

“Fantastic Voyage” serves as Bowie’s Poignant Testament. an Impassioned Proclamation of Humanism.

It's a very modern worldBut nobody's perfectIt's a moving worldBut that's no reasonTo shoot some of those missilesThink of us as fatherless scumIt won't be forgotten'Cause we'll never say anything...

Spray Nation

Spray Nation shares unseen photos of New York's pioneering graffiti artists Women on Train, 1981. All photographs © Martha Cooper, from Spray Nation: 1980s NYC Graffiti Photographs by Martha Cooper,...

Remembering Starman: Mick Rock’s legendary photographs of David Bowie as Ziggy

In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it came Bowie's alter ego and fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock....

Devo: “Kraftwerk from the waist up, Elvis Presley from the hips down” Gerard Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh on being bombarded by hippies at Knebworth in 1978, being told off by Neil Young, and their...

When Andy Warhol Came to China

In late October 1982, Andy Warhol and a small entourage were invited to Hong Kong by Alfred Siu, a young industrialist who had commissioned Warhol portraits of Prince Charles and Princess Diana for...

Brian Aris’ photographs of Debbie Harry

When photographer Brian Aris first met Debbie Harry in 1977 he didn’t know that much about her and scribbled down the phrase “punk princess” in his diary after the shoot. He could never have...

Lorde on David Byrne

On fighting stage fright, staying true to your inspiration, and the mysteries of songwriting It takes only a few minutes after they meet for Lorde and David Byrne to get in sync....

The Velvet Underground Meets Its Match in Todd Haynes

In the director’s hands, music subjects are as much about their cultural moment as about their sound — a good description of the band led by Lou Reed. Todd Haynes said his music-related films are...

PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Madonna: the unseen archives of rock photographer Tony Mott

Rock’n’roll photographer Tony Mott has led the kind of life that for the rest of us seems like a surreal dream. Travelling with Paul McCartney. Partying with Queen. He has photographed everyone from...

“I want to be that girl I needed when I was 15”

Beabadoobee channeled teenage misery and drug use into songs inspired by her grunge heroes – and now the 20-year-old is being hailed as the voice of Generation Z. After giving away physical copies...

Welcome to the weird and lucrative world of fake punk.

Anarchy in the Vintage Punk Clothing Market. Over the last 30 years, pretend handmade original designs incorporating S-and-M and dirty graphics, innovative cuts and straps, military surplus...

Charlie Watts Orbituary

Dapper and Elegant Drummer who was the Rock-Steady Heartbeat of the Rolling Stones. Unruffled amid excess, personality clashes and musical disputes, the Rolling Stones’ exceptional drummer used...

Sex Pistols win legal fight against Johnny Rotten

The former Sex Pistols frontman, Johnny Rotten, has lost a high court attempt to block the punk band’s songs from being used in a forthcoming drama series. The group’s former drummer, Paul Cook, and...

Louis Vuitton’s 200th Birthday Sparks a Host of Creative Collaborations

love maker, an astrologer, among others—to recreate the iconic Louis Vuitton trunk. In honor of designer Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday, the luxury brand has commissioned 200 artists and...

Parental Advisory: the secret history of music’s most controversial logo

In 1985, they founded the group Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). Its goal was simple, to contain the spread of indecent lyrics as much as possible, and stop them from reaching innocent ears....

It’s A Face I know And Don’t Know

Ed Atkin's videos have made him one of the most acclaimed artists of his generation, but what really animates this British artist are the emotions that slip off the screen. Of all the strange,...

Sigue Sigue Sputnik at a Newcastle B&B

It was 1986 and I’d been on the road with Sigue Sigue Sputnik for a couple of days. They’d played a gig in Leeds the previous night and we’d just arrived at a little bed and breakfast in Newcastle...

Iggy Pop Ascends to Greatness

By the time of this picture, it was 1970 and I was working in Detroit for the short-lived rock’n’roll publication Big Fat Magazine. Iggy Pop and I went to the same high school in Ann Arbor,...

Anton Corbijn on 40 Years Shooting Depeche Mode

He thought they were pop lightweights – then turned them into moody megastars. The photographer recalls his adventures with the band, from desert trips to drug-induced near-death experiences. ‘I...

David Bowie and Mick Ronson, Train to Aberdeen, Scotland 1973

"Maybe it’s got something to do with the ridiculously ‘glam’ look of the magic duo and the obviously mundane nature of their British Rail lunch." David Bowie and Mick Ronson on a train to Aberdeen,...

Subway to Studio 54

Skaters, dancers, hustlers, boxers … Swiss photographer Willy Spiller prowled the streets of the Big Apple from 1977 to 1985. Leroy in Harlem, 1984 Sunday Morning on Orchard Street, NY, 1980 Whether...

A Brief History of Transformers

This simple electrical device does much of the fundamental work of modern civilization, and it does so modestly and invisibly. An early AC transformer constructed by George Westinghouse in the...

Nightclubbing

Nightclubbing is the fifth studio album by Jamaican singer and songwriter Grace Jones, released on 11 May 1981. Like Josephine Baker nearly 50 years before her, it was when Jamaican-born Grace Jones...

New York’s Graffiti Scene in the 70s and 80s

Subway Art, originally published in 1984, introduced New York City’s graffiti to the world. A new edition produced by Thames & Hudson features over 70 photographs by Martha Cooper and Henry...

I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit

London, UK Art handlers with Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II (part of his Reigning Queens series) during a preview of Prints and Multiples and Banksy: I Can’t Believe You Morons Actually Buy This...

Transformer

Iconic pictures of Lou Reed, Debbie Harry and David Bowie become exclusive art prints Today the legendary Lou Reed of the Velvet Underground would have turned 79. To celebrate the anniversary, the...

Covid-19 x Valérie Belin

‘In light of the present crisis, I think back to this photograph. It is emblematic of the technological obsolescence of the yesterday world, but which paradoxically seems to foreshadow the future,...

Abuse of Power Comes as no Surprise

Jenny Holzer (b. Gallipolis, Ohio, 1950) was 25 years old when she began compiling her “Truisms,” more than 250 cryptic maxims, terse commands and shrewd observations. Culled from world...

Creative Protest

Hongkongers find creative ways to voice protest. From holding up blank sheets of paper to baking messages into mooncakes, people are devising new ways to protest amid repressive security law The day...

Gareth Pugh’s Grand Reconstruction

The timing of Gareth Pugh’s comeback is as bold as his designs. Pugh observes in his press notes: “Naomi Klein speaks about the idea that seemingly impossible ideas become possible in times of...

Electronic at the Design Museum Review – A Sweaty Rave Paradise Lost

From squat synthesizers to a gyrating cube, a new exhibition dedicated to dance music culture poignantly brings the spirit of communal celebration to a museum One of the first items you see upon...

Basquiat & Warhol and Downtown’s It Crowd

The 1980s was arguably the most exciting time for artists in Downtown New York, and photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was there to capture so many of the big names from that lush and fertile...

The Beautiful and the Damned: Sheila Rock’s Punk Gods

  From Eater to the Clash, from the lipstick of Siouxsie Sioux to the staff of Sex, photographer Sheila Rock caught the faces of punk just as it all went haywire All photographs: Sheila Rock The...

Kanye West’s ‘Jesus Is King’ retail ‘installation’ rises in downtown L.A.

On the opposite side was a sleek counter punctuated with four cash registers. In between was a sand-banked, crater-like pool containing a Sherp — a muscular-looking amphibious ATV with knobby...

Kei Ninomiya at Noir

Kei Ninomiya at Noir proved again that If there is an heir apparent to Rei Kawakubo, he is it. His show featured garments of otherworldly complexity that pushed the envelope to outer space. The...
Other People’s Pants

Other People’s Pants

Tom Burr explores the ways in which we imbue the spaces and things by which we are surrounded—like clothing, furniture, or the patterns in wood—with our memories and emotions.

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EAU DE COLOGNE

EAU DE COLOGNE

“EAU DE COLOGNE” A FEMALE GROUP EXHIBITION AT SPRÜTH MAGERS, LOS ANGELES On view until August 20th, 2016 at Sprüth Magers, 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles. Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel The group show Eau de Cologne...

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Disintegration

"Oh i miss the kiss of treachery the aching kiss before i feed the stench of a love for a younger meat and the sound that it makes when it cuts in deep the holding up on bended knees the addiction of duplicities as bit by bit it starts the...

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ESCAPING THE POLICE

How Stings's daughter sabotaged her music career. My music is like an amazing pub that nobody else has heard about. My life has been about music from the age of four, when my dad bought me my first guitar. Music is in my bones and my...

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Peter Saville’s Tate Beer

Peter Saville’s Tate Beer

Adding to the list of his projects which also include Joy Division, Supreme and Kanye West. The Tate Design Studio has partnered with critically-acclaimed British graphic designer Peter Saville and local British brewers Fourpure to create a beer can fit for the modern...

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FUCKERS

Savages are indisputably a good thing: the world is hardly wallowing in unapologetically serious, all-woman bands at the moment. Especially not ones who have put so much thought into their aesthetic – have a look at the carefully filmed...

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Transit

Transit

We came a long way. Riding the Hannover - Berlin Autobahn. Einleitung Die nach dem Krieg geborenen oder groß gewordenen Deutschen sind - im Westen mehr als im Osten - in relativ glücklich-harmlose Zeiten hineingewachsen. Sie haben nichts erlebt, was an die Erfahrung...

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ROCKAWAY!

ROCKAWAY!

Adding a Splash of Color. A rendering of Katharina Grosse’s “Rockaway!,” which involves Fort Tilden’s decaying aquatics building in Queens, New York.

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FREE RADICAL

FREE RADICAL

Visionaire Is Giving Out Free Artwork in Times Square. ELASTE was free before you were free. Starting tomorrow, Visionaire will be handing out free art prints to celebrate the magazine's "65 FREE" issue. The giveaway, promoted with Grindr, includes posters of a...

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Richard Prince

Richard Prince

always wanted to be the coolest artist in the world: “I’m just — I want to make cool shit. I want to be a cool dude, or whatever.” Today Prince is one of the most successful and influential artists of his generation — specifically, the Pictures Generation, an aloof...

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Qu’est-ce que c’est?

Qu’est-ce que c’est?

AMERICAN PSYCHO The Musical “My first impression is that it’s strange that something I wrote 30 years ago is a musical on Broadway,” Bret Easton Ellis said. “To witness its tortured history, from this thing that was a quasi-victim of censorship to a mainstream...

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MUNICH DISCO DAYS

Accoording to South Korea's MCM, former Michael Cromer Munich. https://youtu.be/xWi8ozJ-jPA "Referencing Bauhaus-inspired designs & David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era, the exclusive campaign presents a modern narrative where disco becomes the inspiration for today’s...

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曹斐 Cao Fei

Cao Fei, COSplayers 2004. From the underground of Guangzhou to the underground of the New York subway and to PS1 Queens, NY. Klaus Biesenbach has curated the sleeper show of the spring: a high-impact retrospective of videos, photographs,...

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HEIZER WERDEN

HEIZER WERDEN

Dig Into Munich Depression. The Ins And Outs And Ups And Downs of Digging a Gigantic Hole on The Outskirts of Munich. It is one of the great 20th century works of art you've never seen, and it was developed and constructed—dug, really, over the course of about a...

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“We need to explode all the shit once more.”

“We need to explode all the shit once more.”

The son of the late Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren is planning to burn his collection of punk memorabilia, estimated to be worth around £5m. Joe Corré, who set up lingerie brand Agent Provocateur, says the ceremonial burning is a protest at the way punk’s legacy...

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Lucid

Dreaming x Iris van Herpen and Nick Knight. https://youtu.be/0u4QF6cUjCM Continuing van Herpen’s vigor of fusing technology with handcraft, the collection features two 3D printed Magma dresses that are combining flexible TPU printing, creating a fine web together with...

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NEW ORDER

The original “Blue Monday” never quite won me over. We celebrate the song's 30th birthday. The original “Blue Monday” never quite won me over. I was never a New Order kinda guy, though New Order had good art work. This adaptation was...

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In a Manner of Speaking

In a Manner of Speaking

"One of the greatest underground bands of the 80-ies" Photo: Thomas Elsner Tuxedomoon is an experimental, post-punk, new wave band from San Francisco, California, United States. The band formed in the late 1970s at the beginning of the punk rock movement. Pulling...

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The Fundstück of The Month

The Fundstück of The Month

Im Pop-Archiv von Pop-Zeitschrift.de werden jeden Monat Fundstücke aus der Pop- und Populärkulturgeschichte dokumentiert und kommentiert. Den Anfang macht die Zeithistorikerin Anne Kurr mit Anmerkungen und Analysen zur Elaste.    

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Heaven

Depeche Mode has come a long way since its 1980s debut as part of Britain's New Wave scene, and as it prepares to tour behind its 13th album, no one appears more surprised at the group's longevity than the band members themselves. The...

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Freak Flag Fly

U.S. Girls is the recording moniker of American-Canadian musician Meghan Remy. "Damn The Valley", a song about the loss experienced by partners of servicemen and women.The video contains ferocious imagery from the widow’s perspective, standing in front the various...

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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.“

GLOBAL SCOUTING LOC/SHT