Aesthetica Magazine Issue 120

The transience of everything is as startling as it is awe-inspiring. Each day is a new day. There’s power in reinvention and its profound ability to transform lives and societies. It embodies the courage to let go of the past and embrace new possibilities, driving innovation. It allows us to break free from limiting beliefs, adapt to changing environments and pursue our passions with vigour. At Aesthetica we have a saying: “It’s only an idea away.” I take so much from those five words. They enable me to have energy and resilience. There is always a solution to any problem – we just need to think of a way over, under or around it.

This issue celebrates humanity’s creative impulse. Anthony McCall’s Solid Light opens this summer at Tate Modern. McCall is known for genre-bending installations that occupy a space between sculpture, cinema, drawing and performance. In 1973, his seminal work Line Describing a Cone redefined the possibilities of sculpture. This September PST ART returns to Getty, Los Angeles, with 800 artists and 70 exhibitions. It asks: what happens when art and science collide? We’re very honoured to speak with Ruth Wallen about the Walking with Trees project, looking at how forests respond to urbanisation, globalisation and climate change. Next, we chat with Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban about his Paper Tube Emergency Shelters. He is lauded for “curiosity, commitment, endless innovation, an infallible eye and acute sensibility.” We hear from Laure Winants, an artist and researcher, who set up studio in the heart of the Arctic ice pack, embarking on a four-month-long polar expedition.

In photography, we set off on experimental journeys and take the possibilities of what image-making can and should be to new heights with Giuseppe Lo Schiavo, Karine Laval, Marta Djourina, Natalia Klimza and Svante Gullichsen. We are also excited to present the work of our cover photographer Maia Flore. Finally, the Last Words go to Maëlle Dufour, in partnership with Visit Flanders.