Join us for the Meanjin/Brisbane launch of un Magazine 18.1: Baudaud. Hear editor Tara Heffernan in conversation with contributors Daniel McKewen and Yannick Blattner.

Un magazine 18.1 considers the badaud as a defining subject in contemporary culture. “The badaud”, according to the Grand dictionnaire universel du XIXe siècle (1867) “is curious; he is astonished by everything he sees; he believes everything he hears, and he shows his contentment or his surprise by his open, gaping mouth.” Easily entertained, but always seeking novelty, the badaud is the ideal consumer, imbibing a pervasive strain of conventionality and anti-intellectualism. Though the badaud has never had the reach of its iconic counterpart, the flaneur, the term might perfectly suit the contemporary subject.

Guests

Tara Heffernan is an art historian and critic presently completing a PhD at the University of Melbourne. Her work concerns modernism, the avant-gardes, and the lineage/s of the New Left. She regularly contributes to Melbourne’s Memo Review and national and international publications like Artlink Magazine, Third Text Online, and Overland. She was a judge for the Darling Portrait Prize (2024) at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.

Daniel McKewen is an artist and Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art at QUT in Meanjin. His practice investigates the intersections of popular screen culture, economics, and politics; and his work has been exhibited at venues including Art Gallery of South Australia, University of Queensland Art Museum, Australia Centre for Contemporary Art, and the 19th Biennale of Sydney.

Yannick Blattner is a Brisbane-based artist whose practice explores the intersection of labour and leisure, interrogating their class-laden values and evolving cultural expectations. In 2022, Blattner was commissioned to create a large-scale installation for the opening of Coffs Harbour’s Cultural & Civic Space, received second prize at the Redland Art Awards and was a runner-up in the National Emerging Art Prize.