Simulacrum

26/11/2025

OPEN CALL: MOTHERBOARD

The motherboard is the quiet structure beneath our screens, the place where physical circuitry becomes culture, semantics, and intimacy. It is the unseen architecture that unfolds our lives, from the phones in our warm hands to the infrastructures that script our futures.

Its influence stretches from Silicon Valley’s visions of frictionless progress to the intimate ways we relate to machines that now speak, respond, and console. Around this core, new ideologies, online subcultures, and artistic responses emerge, revealing how deeply computation has woven itself into the imagination.

Simulacrum is seeking contributions that explore the foundation of the digital world.

Deadline December 29, 2025.
Click the link ink in bio for more info.

14/11/2025

A little autumn dispatch from the editors: what is thinking about, watching, reading, and dreaming up as we launch our new Substack.

That’s right, we’re finally on Substack(!). Expect libidinal picks, the stuff we normally whisper across the editorial table, and everything that falls between our quarterly issues.

Subscribe via the link in our bio — new posts are on the way.

25/10/2025

SCREENING: x .magazine
The Beauty of Vice (1986)

Join us on Thursday, 30 October 2025, 19:00–21:30, for a very special free event at to celebrate LIBIDO. Droog has curated , and we will host a special screening of Yugoslav cult classic Živko Nikolić’s The Beauty of Vice (1986) after a reading from our featured writer Alma Noor.

Drinks will be provided by our sponsor.
Find your free tickets via the link in our bio.

21/10/2025

Thank you to all who came to the launch of LIBIDO! Special thanks to , and our sponsor .de.eeuwige.jeugd.

You can now get your own cheeky copy of LIBIDO via the link in our bio.

14/10/2025

SCREENING: x .magazine
Libido — The Beauty of Vice (1986)

Join us on Thursday, 30 October 2025, 19:00–21:30, for a ❤️‍🔥 very special free event ❤️‍🔥 made possible with the help of to celebrate the launch of our freshest issue, LIBIDO. Droog has curated : an environment of light, visuals, and sound, pulsing between pleasure, repression, and creation.

We will do a special screening of Yugoslav cult classic Živko Nikolić’s The Beauty of Vice (1986): in a remote Montenegrin highland village bound by rigid tradition, a young married couple leave for the coast seeking change. They find work at a nudist colony, and their confrontation with a freer, more sensual lifestyle forces them to re-evaluate their beliefs.

A complimentary drink is provided by our sponsor.
Find your free tickets via the link in our bio.

06/10/2025

OPEN CALL

Beginning in 1960, Stanley Brouwn asked strangers on the street to draw directions to various locations on sheets of paper stamped with the phrase “THIS WAY BROUWN.” His work often explored measurement, movement, and the act of walking, using simple gestures to question systems of distance, authorship, and documentation. As a Surinamese-Dutch artist working in the context of postwar Europe, Brouwn’s practice engaged with displacement. Throughout his career, Brouwn refused interviews, photographs, and reproductions.

We’re currently accepting textual and visual submissions for our next issue, DRIFTING. We’re looking for open, interpretive, and critical responses.

Submissions can be sent by email to [email protected] until Oct 14th.

Find more information via the link in our bio.

03/10/2025

On Wednesday, October 8 at 17:00, we’ll present our newest issue, LIBIDO, at .
Drinks are generously provided by our sponsor.
Free entrance.

02/10/2025

OPEN CALL

We’re currently accepting textual and visual submissions for our next issue, DRIFTING. We’re looking for open, interpretive, and critical responses.

Submissions can be sent by email to [email protected] until Oct 14th.

Find more information via the link in our bio.

29/09/2025

LAUNCH EVENT

We are happy to announce the launch of LIBIDO at . Join us on Wednesday, October 8 at 17:00 for the presentation of our latest issue, accompanied by a reading performance by . Drinks are generously provided by our sponsor.
Open entrance.

17/09/2025

OPEN CALL: DRIFT(ING)

Like the last survivors on Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa, we are adrift on a tumultuous open sea. We drift through a fluid landscape where nothing feels fixed, and crisis is the constant, surrendering to waves and winds while opening spaces to reimagine ourselves.

To drift is to move without certainty. It carries both anxiety and potential: a psychic force, an affect, a political act. Drifting can unsettle normative structures, propel us toward change, and create windows for new forms of resistance, intimacy, and meaning.

With this open call, Simulacrum Magazine invites writers and artists to contribute textually (essay, free text, poetry) or visually on the theme of drift(ing). Thinking emotionally or physically, individually or collectively, we are seeking daring, interdisciplinary perspectives that expose, investigate, and unravel what it means to be adrift.

The deadline for this open call is on October 14. Find more information via the link in our bio.

—

(1) Pipilotti Rist - Ever Is All Over 1997

(2) Théodore Géricault - The Raft of the Medusa 1818-1819

(3) Mona Hatoum - Roadworks 1985 (performance still 1995)

(4) Francis Alÿs - Paradox of Praxis I (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing) 1997

(5) Maggi Hambling - 2016 2016

16/09/2025

11/08/2025

Vacancy Graphic Designer

Are you passionate about graphic design and eager to shape the visual identity of a quarterly zine? Do you have a vision for what Simulacrum could look like? We're looking for a Graphic Designer to join our team, with a modest stipend and plenty of creative freedom.

Simulacrum is a zine at the crossroads of art, literature, and theory that can be found in print in bookshops from Amsterdam and London to Paris and Milan. For over 30 years, we have been involved in a tight community of artists, writers, academics, and zine-makers. Besides printing, Simulacrum organises exhibitions, filmscreenings, symposia, and collective readings.

Requirements

We’re looking for a graphic designer with talent and ambition, who is eager to build their portfolio by working on a professional, real-world publication.

You must be able to work with Adobe InDesign or a comparable layout tool, and be comfortable navigating the structure, expectations, and tight deadlines that come with producing a quarterly magazine.

You bring a sharp eye for detail, drive to grow, and willingness to collaborate within an editorial team.

Website design skills are a plus

What we Offer

A modest fee per design

Plenty of artistic freedom to shape the visual identity of Simulacrum

A close-knit editorial team that values collaboration and creativity

Access to a vibrant network of artists, writers, zines, and independent bookstores

A well-established cultural platform, with a strong online presence with 5,000+ followers

To apply, please send us your portfolio, a brief motivation to [email protected] and let us know whether you prefer to work independently or in collaboration with another designer.