ETC. No. 4/ 2025: Comfort Zone

Under the title Comfort Zone, the fourth issue of ETC. magazine explores all the ways in which we understand comfort and safety as they translate into our ideas of family, love, friendship and community. Were interested in the myriad ways kinship is formed in families both biological and chosen. From open relationships to throuples, how has the relationship unit changed and what kind of dilemmas does it open? Despite the effort toward body positivity, how difficult is it to feel comfortable in ones own skin? When homes are lost and communities displaced, how can a zone of comfort be made anew? In parallel to the sphere of human relationships, comfort is packaged and sold, commodified to push products and promised to us in the forms of period pads, streaming platforms and comfort foods. Is materialism an acceptable refuge or is it paralysing us into Wall-Es post-apocalyptic space humans? Are we not comfortable enough or too much so for our own good? In this issue, we seek to explore comfort and care as struggles for physical, sexual and emotional liberation, as well as the often dangerous consequences of retreating into our comfort zones.

PRESENTED ARTISTS

Karolina Balcer, melanie bonajo, Nikola Dimitrovi, Jagoda Dobecka, Laureta Hajrullahu, Morta Jonynait, Petra Korent, Marie Lukov, Mothers Artlovers, Beatrice Moumdjian, Sangara Perhaj, Tejka Pezdirc, Jelisaveta Rapai, Maja Smrekar, Martina Drozd Smutn, Helena Tahir, Saa Tati, Dominika Trapp, Kaja Upelj, Dorottya Vkony, Sonja Vulpes, Konstantin Zhukov, Marijo Zupanov

CONTRIBUTIONS BY

Laura Amann, Nina Baun, Roberta Bratovi, Hana eferin, Tia iek, Katja Gorean, Laura Gyrfi, iva Hanc, Tilen Jamnik, Tereza Jindrov, Ajda Ana Kocutar, Lara Meja, Katarzyna Rniak-Szabelska, Vida Rucli, Jaka Smerkolj Simoneti, Alja krlep, Georgia idorescu, Dora Trek, Liu Zakrajek