1/2 is a creative collective comprised of four friends living and working in four different cities: Berlin, Paris, Rennes, and Vienna. Their collaboration manifests as undemi, a blog for sharing work and ideas, along with a series of handmade zines, self-published biannually by members Laure Boer, Anne-Pauline, Chloé Thomas, and Lucie Pindat.
The following is an interview with Pindat as part of the Overbooked Series:
What is the first book you remember from your childhoods?
Loe Lionni, Petit-bleu et petit-jaune
What is the last book you read?
Georges Perec, Un homme qui dort
Describe an impossible publication you’d like to make (if you could do the impossible).
Nothing is impossible, isn’t it? Or maybe I don’t fantasize about impossible things. Then I can feel completely free.
Who collects your zines?
People like us. Those who like printed papers, books, and magazines… And those who want to possess them…
What makes a publication valuable?
As a designer I would never buy a book if the design isn’t good. But I could buy a book for the design and never read it. A bit insane, but that’s the way it is. Form, colors, paper, composition, materials…
Do you have any book-related rituals?
I buy, I collect, I put them on the shelf, and then I keep them in mind.
Do you have any current or upcoming issues you’d like to feature on our site?
Yes, 1/2 no. 7, the recent issue of 1/2 zine.
What is the process of creating 1/2? Does the group pick a theme? How are the themes researched and articulated? How do you print and hand-produce the publication?
There is no theme! At a certain point everyone sends raw materials (images, drawings…) to the one in charge of designing and editing that issue. We send a lot of material so that the editor has enough content to make something new. No restrictions. Everything is permitted. Images can merge, be reworked, cropped, or destroyed… as long as the result is strong. Every zine is designed by someone else. That’s what makes each one different.
The zine is printed (offset, risograph, or laser print) and then folded and bound by hand. It’s published in a limited edition of 200. That’s the maximum quantity we can produce by hand. And that’s what we want because it enables us to make things that wouldn’t be possible in larger quantities.
I would just say that 1/2 is a friendship story. And sometimes I wonder why we do all this. I don’t know if it’s for the art or just to have a good reason to see each other more often!
How do you see your site coexisting with the printed publication? Does content from your blog appear in print or is the blog a separate manifestation of your conceptual/formal exchange?
The blog and the zine are the same thing. Only I would say that the zine goes further. The images posted on the blog are not altered or edited, so the interaction is limited. On paper, the works merge. And the zine becomes an artifact. It’s not a showcase or a portfolio. It’s really an art piece in and of itself…
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