The contrasting concept of comic tragic may be an old one, but we believe it to be more relevant than ever. Indeed both elements might be taken to their extremes in the future. That was reason enough for us to make it the theme of our spring issue: »Muslims, Munich and Monroe«. Our Monroe is however not the real thing, but rather a Marilyn fan photographed by Tina Bara. This act of self-staging reveals the tragedy of an icon imprisoned by her star status. Christoph Draeger’s drastic images remind us that Munich isn’t just a worldwide synonym for Oktoberfest. And Brigitte Niedermair dares to enter a Muslim context: the comedy of playing hide and seek by concealing western luxury products beneath the chador is darkened by the tragedy of the socially oppressed women who wear them. It gets really tragi-comic in our series of short interviews with dead artists in which we asked some of the dead-famous about their personal views on posthumous fame. The work of certain artists would certainly be more reasonably priced if they hadn’t died tragically: death sells. Fortunately things didn’t go that far when Melodie McDaniel photographed her visions of the suicidal fantasies of a young woman. We naturally demand the full mental and physical presence of those involved in making sleek magazine, but when model Kemp happily dangled herself over a hotel balcony four storeys up without a harness, we were a bit worried. Maybe we should choose a less life-threatening theme next time. Your sleek team.
