II Magazine: A New Annual Publication Merging Performance and Print

A new annual magazine called II Magazine has launched, focusing on performance art and challenging the notion that print is static. The publication is inspired by the 1977 'Iniziative di ii' in Rome, where artists Giuseppe Bartolucci, Ulisse Benedetti, Simone Carella, and Franco Cordelli occupied public spaces with performances. In 2021, a group of artists, critics, and curators from Turin and Rome revived the initiative, staging performances in Roman squares during the pandemic, announcing locations only a day in advance. The magazine's title 'II' is derived from the Italian 'io' (I) in plural, now capitalized to signify a second edition. The magazine eschews a traditional table of contents, with articles interwoven; for example, Lisa Andreani's piece on lecture performance alternates with Michelangelo Miccolis's 'The Performances I missed'. It also includes 'sonic' pages with bird chirps and a QR code for a musical homage to composer Sylvano Bussotti. Priced at 35€, the magazine aims to demonstrate that writing can itself be performance—an ongoing process rather than fixed text.