Inflight Magazine

by Johan Grimonprez

Anyone who's ever sat on airplane has looked at them at least once--the safety instructions pamphlets and glossy airline magazines provided for the passenger's edification and entertainment. Inflight Magazine puts a sinister and subversive twist on these banal booklets--formally presented as a magazine, it functions as an artistic manual for hijackers, equipped with such essentials as a safety instruction card and a sick bag. What could be played as a simple joke serves for Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez as an illumination of the value of the spectacular in our culture of catastrophe. Inflight Magazine denounces the media pseudo-event, attempting to reveal the influence of pictures on our feelings, perception and memory. Viewers and readers are taken onto a jarring flight through their own experiences, memories and emotions, allowing them to create a space of critical distance from the spectacle of the media. The publication of Inflight Magazine accompanies a traveling exhibition around the world, with stops in Ghent, New York, Copenhagen, Athens, Berlin, Oslo, Cambridge, and Brussels.

Paperback

First published January 6, 2001

Reviews

[Jak Krumholtz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history and exploration (celebration?) of skyjackings set in the appearance of an in-flight magazine. Like a magazine, some sections were more interesting than others.