welcome

Welcome to the home of the joint venture that is Kheir and Mousai.

But principally, to the home of Mousai; a multi-disciplinary art journal dedicated to the broad occupation of transgression, and the many tangents inherent beneath it, such as esotericism and liminality.

We are on the verge of printing the first issue, and therefore also of publication. It has been a long journey to get to this point, from the first inception of an idea through the many burrows that then follow, including development, pitch, planning, discussions, curation, editing, and many, many painful hours of trying to realise this thing from an internal abstraction into something of form that exists in the world.

Mousai seeks to give voice and platform to artists exploring different avenues of transgression, that may seldom otherwise have exposure in curated print form, that seeks to merge contemporary aesthetics with the underground and subversive movement of zine culture.

An apt juxtaposition, perhaps, as much art born from transgression often simultaneously inhabits beauty and empowerment alongside pain and suffering.

Transgression will evoke different responses in everyone. Disgust to some, beauty to others; and even what qualifies as transgressive will be disputed. Ultimately, it is the artist’s intention to transgress and our responses to it which matter, rather than some quantifiable perception of what universally is, or what is not an act of transgression.

Mousai operates on the view that the modus operandi of art is, ultimately, to transgress. To transgress rules that may protect and oppress us; overruling them to explore the cracks in the world, and expose the darkness, suffering, challenges, but also beauty inherent within them.

As I consider what Mousai will mean as it is released into the world, and it becomes something more than the artist’s involved original intentions and then my vision as curator, I realise it doesn’t really matter. So long as we refuse commodification and remain vital, honest, and critical, the art presented will remain the property of the artists, and of you, the world; rather than pieces designed to hang on walls and become more expensive. An act of defiance, protest, and statement.

Join us.