Zero zine is a contemporary art zine
for children. It offers them a direct experience of art without filters or barriers, encouraging them to explore, feel, think, and imagine. The first issue presents the work of Léa Katharina Meier, Maude Gyger, Mimmo Haraditiohadi, Pedro Wirz and Xenia Lucie Laffely.
Contemporary art projects aimed at children are most often designed to explain art to them or to involve them in the creative process through participatory workshops. A study of existing offerings has shown us that very few offer young children a real direct experience of contemporary art. Some projects that do offer a direct experience provide children with materials designed primarily for an adult audience. This content is never conceived directly by artists for children. The result is objects that can only be handled with adult supervision, using formal and conceptual vocabulary that arouses little interest because it is unsuitable or even downright dangerous.
Genuine mediation between art and young audiences requires new creations that are neither 1:1 reproductions of works intended for adults nor simplistic popularizations of artistic practices. This is what zero advocates: works that take into account the specific sensibilities and curiosity of our young readers while respecting their intelligence and capacity for interpretation.
Art is a tool that helps us think about the world around us. It helps us navigate the complexity of the contemporary world by deconstructing deeply rooted myths and opening up new perspectives. Children, for their part, still have everything to learn about the world, and the way in which this learning takes place largely defines who they will become later in life.
