Red Door 29

RED DOOR 29
THE UNINHABITED ISSUE
WINTER 2021-22
REDDOORMAGAZINE.COM
01

RED
JUSTIN
PENOV
36-41
02
PER
ADOLFSEN
8-13

ALAN
RANKLE
26-31
MARTIN
ANDERSEN
22-23
DOOR
03

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
RED DOOR MAGAZINE 29
THE UNINHABITED ISSUE
Winter 2021 - 22
FEATURED ARIST
PER ADOLFSEN ----------------------------- 8 - 13
RED TRANSMISSIONS PODCAST presents:
SOCIAL POETICS
A conversation with Mark Nowak--- 16 - 17
EYES OF THE BEHOLDER
by Martin Andersen ---------------------- 22 - 23
With poetry by:
Xu Linzhi ---------------------------------------- 17
Tanya Cosio -----------------------------------20
Ilaria Boffa --------------------------------------21
Iraj Shariq ---------------------------------------24
Bruce Mc Rae ---------------------------------25
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
ALAN RANKLE ----------------------------- 26 - 31
JUSTIN PENOV -----------------------------36 - 41
KULTIVERA PRESENTS:
Poetic connections in time of isolation
by Frank Bergsen ------------------------ 32
Maps to fight anxiety
by Mario Z.Puglisi ----------------------- 34 - 35
RED DOOR MAGAZINE
is released in Denmark under
RED DOOR PRESS
ISBN 978-87-94003-05-6
All rights reserved
04

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05

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
06
Dear all,
Please insert here the appropriate new year
greetings and best wishes, an optimistic yet
realistic phrase on how to set projects and
resolutions by aiming high while continuing
to be in the middle of a global pandemic. I am
a poet, yes, but I think this message needs to
adjust individually based on the region and
situation these words find you, so please
imagine I have said just what you wanted to
hear in order to feel inspired and comforted.
Now, getting straight to the point: The
themes of the magazine are often chosen
by the collaborators and correspondents of
the magazine. The theme of UNINHABITED
was chosen by Tremella radio host Solveig
Willum, who is an outdoors enthusiast and
lecturer on the subject, and with whom Red
Door is collaborating this summer to host
the very first Uninhabited International Film
Festival, a series of documentaries, short films,
poetry films and lectures on precisely that:
The uninhabited, undisturbed, untainted
places of our planet...and humanity’s
relationship with nature. This is why it was
the perfect opportunity to focus our eyes on
the landscapes, on the abandoned lands,
on the empty spaces, through the art of
three very different artists, two who focus on
landscapes and one whose art is an entire
world of scenes of the aftermath, homes left
behind in some corner of our own being.
Alan Rankle’s landscapes lean towards
abstraction but are also enchanting scenes
of their own, and I look very much forward to
hosting his exhibition at Red Door this spring.
Of Per Adolfsen, you will read more in the
pages of his featured article, and you can
hear his thoughts directly on the podcast.
Before I go on there is something that I need
to mention regarding the choice of artists in
these pages, because I am often speaking of
inclusion. I want to note that I did do research,
and contact artists of other genders, but
sadly did not hear back from any of them. I do
not say this as an excuse, but to encourage
the readers of this magazine to help with the
curation and diversity of the work in these
pages, so that all colors and genders are
represented... and to keep me in check too.
Speaking of goals for 2022, there’s
something I am attempting to push forward
with a group of collaborators of Red Door.
We have in the past spoken of Red Press, as
an independent publishing project, mainly of
poetry in translation, which I began with the
poet Lalo Barrubia. There is a series of books
in various languages which we have busily
translated to English, and which I hope to
begin releasing later this year.
Then there’s also Tremella Radio, an
independent radio station of literary and
cultural conversations, wellness, mindfulness
and excellent music... and the physical
gallery on Møllegade, always welcoming
new exhibitions, but which has been forced
to be closed more often than open the past
two years due to the pandemic. If you are
reading this you probably know that I run all
these projects independently, with no private
nor public support, apart from my patreon
subscribers. Here is my official invitation to
you, to join me this year that begins now, and
begin receiving your quarterly subscription
of the magazine:
www.patreon.com/madamneverstop
or simply give a pledge of your support and
help me continue all these projects, which
aim to document, entertain and inform, from
both a local and international standpoint,
with many voices and initiatives.
This paragraph must be the one where I
share my gratitude, my joy and my delight
to be working with the cultural organizers,
collaborators, correspondents and artists
who make of Red Door such a beautiful
publication. Special thanks to Frank, Colm
and Magnus in Kultivera, Dominic, Mel and
Aleisa in Litteraturcentrum KVU, Solveig
Willum, Martin Andersen, Tanya Cosio, Mario
Z. Publisi, Brandon Davis, and of course to
my husband Dr. Hansen who is so giving
and willing to help out at every exhibition,
give an ear to every podcast, and provide
the emotional support during the long winter
months and all year round.
To each and everyone of you who since
2009 has accompanied Red Door Magazine
through its transformations and adventures,
may poetry keep you warm, inspired, alive.
-Madam Neverstop.

07

FEATURED ARTIST
In the island of Fyn, in English known as Funen,
45 kilometres north of Svendborg, there’s a
city called Odense, home of the author of fairy
tales Hans Christian Andersen, but it is also the
place where the last Viking king, Canute IV of
Denmark, was murdered by unruly peasants.
The Odense river flows through the city from
the south, and to the north there is the Odense
Fjord, accessed through narrow passages and
canals. Then there are beaches and hills, so
many trees, the rugged peninsula of Skoven,
and connected by highways, islands. One
of them, an important breeding ground to
migratory birds.
It is in this complex environment of temperate
oceanic climate and long winters, where
Danish artist Per Adolfsen finds the subjects of
inspiration for his art. It is true that the subject of
choice does not have a name nor takes breaks
from posing, but it is just as full of life and
magic, breathing and dancing, as any other
muse whose beauty has been immortalized by
artists in the past.
What attracts to Per Adolfsen’s art is the
familiarity of the scenes depicted, the simple,
firm lines and confident color combinations,
but most certainly the magic that is captured
in each of his pieces, as if creating havens on
purpose for us to look at and hide away in...
away from a busy, boring world of greys and
loneliness, into fairy tales of tall branches,
fjords, and the nostalgic reflections of a heart.
08

PER
ADOLFSEN
09

On a recent interview with Red Transmissions
Podcast, Per Adolfsen shared that his interest
for landscapes, and for art itself, started when
he was just a child, but was confirmed when
on a trip to Norway to celebrate his sister’s
wedding, he was taken to see the Edward
Munch museum, confirming in this place that
what he wanted to do was create “something
that could touch others... leave behind
something that can move a child’s heart as
much as an adult’s, create feelings”.
When speaking of the artistic process he
exclaims that art is the same as poetry. It is
about the system, the rhythm, the music.
“There’s a difference, I notice, if you’re driving
here in Denmark, we have all these fields and
sometimes they have green corn, and when it’s
short you can see the dark soil underneath, so
in summertime, for example, when it has rained
roughly, the soil is so dark brown and thick,
and the green corn shines like if it was neon,
and the air is special, the light is something
special. If you can feel this the right way, you
are where you are supposed to be. But I think,
the way we live, we are adults, we have seen
this 100 times, we forget to notice. We forget
see. You have to look for stars. You have to
dream. People get so mature it’s boring.”
Per speaks highly of the ability to have
curiosity, to find new connections, to find the
new angle in everything by allowing the inner
child to remain curious and alive. It is this
balance between falling constantly in love with
nature and documenting it, to trying out new
technologies and using Instagram as a daily
challenge, what has build him a dedicated fan
base.
From exhibiting in Armory week in New York, to
Miami, Paris,Japan, Korea, the UK, something
is always happening in Per Adolfsen’s busy
art schedule. “I am just a kid, somehow. I was
thinking, let’s make a world tour! I don’t want
the intellectual reflections in the big galleries.
Tell them: Per likes to go into nature, and
paint. I just want to show this to people. I am
so grateful to my audience for supporting my
work. When I was a kid I didn’t know you could
do exhibitions and experience the world, I just
thought it was wonderful to paint, but I really
enjoy connecting with those who enjoy my
work”.
010

“In summertime, for example,
when it has rained roughly, the
soil is so dark brown and thick,
and the green corn shines like
if it was neon, and the air is
special, the light is something
special. If you can feel this
the right way, you are where
you are supposed to be...
But we have seen this a
hundred times. We forget to
notice. We forget to see. You
have to look at the stars. You
have to dream!”.
-Per Adolfsen.
With more than ninety thousand followers on
social media and collectors all over the world,
Per has now found a stable international
appreciation of his work, which serves as
an additional encouragement to continue
creating, and trying to find the purpose of life
and creativity. “When I started this project I
was really depressed, more than I was aware
of. It’s a long story, but when I do this I forget
myself. I focus on my lines, on the rhythm, on
the patterns of the world around me.”
The art piles up beautifully, a collection of
black and white pencil illustrations and the
beautiful, colorful landscapes you find in these
pages. There’s movement, harsh and vibrant,
which is not just from the wind, but from a
rage, a nostalgia, a melancoly that is very
ingrained in his Scandinavian nature, prone
to darkness and long winters. “People say we
are the happiest in the world, us Danes, but in
reality we have the highest rate of suicide in
the world, and at the same time, we are such
spoiled people.”
Listen to the entire interview with Per Adolfsen
by looking up Red Transmissions Podcast on
Spotify, iTunes or most podcast providers, or
visit www.reddoormagazine.com/podcast
Follow Per Adolfsen on instagram:
@peradolfsen_artist
Art provided by Per Adolfsen
Article by Elizabeth Torres
for Red Door Magazine, 2022.
011

012

013

A most exciting new project launched this summer in Denmark / Sweden, led by Red Door but
founded as a democratically run and managed community radio station, with a focus on literature,
sustainability, sound art, mental health and wellness, as well as performance arts and independent
music.
Tremella is the name of a family of fungi that is often ear-shaped, but also sounds a lot like Tremello,
a modulation effect that rhythmically changes the volume of your signal... It all just seemed very
fitting for the name of a radio station with the aforementioned interests.
There’s a little bit of everything, from the classic Orson Welles plays for radio to a show by the
International Centre of Women Playrights, several shows by poets, including Foreignness and
Friendship by poet Morten Ranum, Monday Madness by Claus Andersen, the Poetic Phonotheque
and Red Transmissions, as well as various sound art shows, talk shows about mental health and
wellness, and playlists by venues and DJs in our network. Tune in via: www.tremellaradio.eu
Or even better, join us with your own show! Write to tremellaradio@gmail.com for more info.
014

015

RED TRANSMISSIONS PODCAST
016
Poetry is the craft of necessity,
rather than a refined practice done in
illuminated blank spaces. It is the art of
documenting through words that which
is not tangible, not easily visible, and
which in many occassions occurs away
from the public eye. Poetry is a tool for
the people, in case of silence, in case
of injustice, in case of love, in case of
routine setting in, in case of pandemic.
I am reminded of its importance as a
documentation and communication
instrument when I speak to Mark Nowak
about the Worker Writers School, and the
tellings of his experiences working with
trade unions and workers, sometimes
also with prisoners, many times with
people who had never before written a
book but whose sensibility was always
there, accompanying them through
the visions and daily tasks of their
jobs. Nowak mentions another book
launched this year as a result of these
workshops and poetic meetings, now
turned virtual due to the on-going covid
lockdowns. It is called Coronavirus
Haiku Book.
You can listen to the full conversation
by looking up Red Transmissions
Podcast on Spotify, iTunes and most
podcast providers or by visiting
reddoormagazine.com/podcast
Poetry is a thing of survival. Poetry is
essential. Don’t you forget that.
Special thanks to Mark Nowak for this
insightful interview.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Nowak is the author of Coal Mountain
Elementary, Shut Up Shut Down, and Revenants.
He is the recipient of the Freedom Plow Award
for Poetry & Activism and fellowships from the
Lannan and Guggenheim foundations. Nowak
has led poetry workshops for workers and trade
unions in the US, South Africa, the UK, Panama,
the Netherlands, and elsewhere. He is currently a
professor of English at Manhattanville College and
the founding director of the Worker Writers School.
A screw fell to the ground
in this dark night of overtime
plunging vertically, lightly clicking
it won’t attract anyone’s attention
just like last time
on a night like this
when someone plunged to the ground.
-Xu Lizhi
Chinese migrant worker and poet,
who worked at the Foxconn Factory in Shenzhen until
his death from a 17th floor across the factory, at 24 years
old. (pg.240 of Social Poetics). Translation by Nao.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Social Poetics documents the imaginative
militancy and emergent solidarities of a new,
insurgent working class poetry community rising
up across the globe. Part autobiography, part
literary criticism, part Marxist theory, Social Poetics
presents a people’s history of the poetry workshop
from the founding director of the Worker Writers
School. Nowak illustrates not just what poetry
means, but what it does to and for people outside
traditional literary spaces, from taxi drivers to street
vendors, and other workers of the world.
017

018
poeticphonotheque.com

OPEN CALL:
The Poetic Phonotheque is a
multimedia collection of poetry in
all languages, in all subjects, in both
audio and video.
The purpose of this phonotheque is
to serve as a contemporary archive
of our voices, emotions, struggles,
stories and styles, wherever we are, to
bring us together in spite of the social
distancing of our current times.
To participate and add your voice to
the collection, visit:
www.poeticphonotheque.com
and submit your audi by directly
recording it on the website.
If your poetry is more experimental
and involves music, effects, or other
voices, please email us an mp3 file to
poetiskefonotek@gmail.com
If your poetry is in video format, please
send the files also, as we do not embed
from other websites.
The physical collection is hosted
at Kulturhuset Islands Brygge in
Copenhagen, Denmark, and at
Kultivera in Tranås, Sweden. If you are
a cultural organizer and would like to
host the collection in your city, please
send us an email to the same address.
Voices from the world.
Poetry for all.
019

POETRY
Verb without person
I
Pachamama swallowed your companions
tears your belly apart
with music in Portuguese.
II
From I don’t know what planet or stadium, they
tell you:
learn, you must learn again the word Enjoy.
Tanya Cosío
Jalisco, Mexico
020

Naked poem
The city and this solitude
found architecture of things
no shades in the north light.
Inhabitants disappear hence
built structures reside naked.
Abstract counterparts, we owe
the aesthetic of utility-bearing composites.
Some places open causal profiles
they extend semantics.
Designing shelters though intrinsically social
yields to moral relevance.
Did we choose Beauty?
There is a joint liability, viable obligations.
Our gaze can be so disengaged and violent
in such need of repurposing.
Our gazes, spectators of their own standpoint.
We accommodate our limbs
on the madieri*, and cover the masonry with
waterproof clay and lime plaster
stapling bones.
Everything moves, every thing aches.
* timber boards on which Venice’s buildings are
accommodated
Spoglie
La città e questa solitudine
architettura trovata delle cose
niente ombre nella luce del nord.
Gli abitanti scompaiono e allora
le strutture fabbricate risiedono spoglie.
Controparti astratte, possediamo
l’estetica di materiali orientati all’utilità.
Alcuni luoghi aprono profili causali
estendono la semantica.
La progettazione di ripari, intrinsecamente
sociale si piega alla rilevanza morale.
Abbiamo scelto la Bellezza?
Esiste una responsabilità congiunta, obbligazioni
fattibili.
Il nostro sguardo può essere così distratto e violento
così bisognoso di riqualificazione.
I nostri sguardi, spettatori della propria
posizione.
Appoggiamo le membra
sui madieri e copriamo la muratura
con argilla resistente all’acqua e intonaco di
calce
graffettando le ossa.
Ogni cosa si muove, ogni cosa fa male.
Ilaria Boffa
Italy
021

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER
022

023

POETRY
The lost soul
The dejected soul is trapped in the cage of my skeleton,
I am unaware of the fact, how to set it free?
Sometimes it seems our very own existence cost us a lot.
The great burden on my shoulder,
everyday, shatters me into miniscule fragments,
I haven’t smiled so long the way I used to,
My jovial soul is lost somewhere,
I want to run as far as I can,
beyond the galaxies,
deep beneath the core of earth,
I wish I could become air and get dissolved in it,
or maybe a water droplet that just flows,
I am inclined to become night sky, calm and composed,
my heart is enclosed in a hard coat,
the first rays of the sun cannot find their way in,
standing at the verge of desolation,
the optimist in me wants to abandon hope,
the great legend in me can no longer stand
the torments of thorns,
because they bringing blood every second
When I was penning down all the woe from the ink of my
very own blood,
someone whispered in my ear from the sky above,
with every hardship there is ease,
undoubtedly with every hardship there is ease,
your Lord has not forsaken you
nor has he become hateful of you,
your Lord will give you so much that you will be pleased,
because I am Al-Reman, the most compassionate.
My eyes filled with tears,
Those words were enough for my consolation,
Not a single query in my heart was left to ask,
I know, I know a day will come,
When I’ll stand in sunshine,
brave as a warrior,
staunch as a mountain
On that day the hard coat of my heart will break into flinders,
the sunlight will fall upon it,
and a new flower of hope, bliss and triumph
will bloom from it,
From where I fall, I’ll rise beyond it,
On that day I’ll unchain the dejected soul and set it free,
I will find my jovial soul,
the lost Soul.
Iraj Shariq,
Karachi, Pakistan.
024

All Change
The coming and going of things,
time altering itself, adjusting temperatures,
refining seasonal light, making all the difference.
A darker morning than the month before,
Venus struggling in the lower atmosphere,
the stars reassessing their previous stance,
Planet Home circumnavigating the galactic rim,
pulling us by the hand as if an untoward child.
Sitting at the littoral edge of the world,
summer packing it in,
autumn shaking in the wings,
alterations accruing at the cellular level,
otherness replacing otherness on the big wheel
and little I can do about it,
ruination unenviable but always in fashion.
Losing my grip to a false sense
of accomplishment.
An exasperating cavalcade of light
and circumstance,
youth fossilized, the middle ages genuflecting
before a darker age approaching.
When the last is first and nothing lasts.
Where we make mansions of the ephemeral
and a door closes for evermore,
gravity’s top wobbling as you reach for the wine.
The Earth running down. The light tiring.
Bruce McRae
Canada
025

ALAN
RANKLE
026

Coming soon to Red Door Gallery:
A solo exhibition by UK artist Alan Rankle
Alan Rankle looks to the past in order to paint the future –
and has done for two decades.
As he has explained: ‘I wanted to relate ideas about
historical, idealised, pastoral landscape in art to the grim
reality of the environmental crisis that we are in… Considering
the historical origins of the genre in relation to my own
paintings, I wanted to convey the irony implicit in how the
19th century Romantic movement, with its emphasis on the
idyllic natural world of an imaginary past, was sponsored
by people who, having made gigantic fortunes out of the
Industrial Revolution by building their empires on the slave
trade and the criminal use of the Enclosures Acts forcing
the poor from their traditional peasant homes to work
in their factories and mills, also laid the foundations of
environmental pollution on a catastrophic scale’.
So if his landscapes look corroded and polluted, that is to
the rhetorical point – but they are beautiful, too - drawing us
in to his argument, but also suggesting a recognition of the
temptations that led us to where we are.
by Paul Caray-Kent.
Alan Rankle (b. 1952) UK
@alanrankleprojects
027

028

029

030

031

POETIC CONNECTIONS
IN TIMES OF ISOLATION
032
Elizabeth Torres, also known as Madam
Neverstop, is an artist with many irons
in the fire. Originally from Colombia but
now living and working in Copenhagen,
Elizabeth is a poet, multimedia artist
and translator, as well as director of Red
Door Gallery and Red Door Magazine,
and initiator of the radio station Tremella
Radio. For some time now, another project
can be added to the long list: the Poetic
Phonotheque (Det Poetiske Fonotek).
The project came into being during
the height of the Covid-19 epidemic,
which, as we all know, was very stressful
and imposed a lot of restrictions. With
the pandemic came enforced isolation,
boredom, idleness and the loss of
opportunities for poets to perform and
thus reach out to audiences.
In an attempt to overcome these
obstacles, Elizabeth came up with the idea
of the Poetic Phonotheque. If we couldn’t
meet physically, we had to communicate
in a different way. This was done by
harnessing the power of digital media,
creating a multimedia platform where
poets and visual artists could submit their
work.
The Poetic Phonotheque project was
launched on 21 March 2020, which
happens to be World Poetry Day. The
project has evolved into a virtual library
of international poetry. An ever-growing
collection that now includes over 300
audiovisual poems, performed by poets
from all over the world and which can be
seen and heard at:
www.poeticphonotheque.com
Contributing to the growth of the
collection is very easy. For keen poets, all
you have to do is turn on your computer
and go to the aforementioned website,
press ‘record’, read your poetry, give your
name, click ‘send’ and voilà! you are part
of the Poetic Phonotheque.
Since 2021, it has been collaborating with
Kulturhuset Islands Brygge, which also
houses the collection, as does Kultivera
in Tranås, but as the archive is digital,
other cities can also use its material and
host events such as exhibitions. The idea
is that in the future it will be possible to
hold local events showcasing poetry,
screenings and books etc. The concept
goes very well with poetry film festivals,
as you could rotate the events between
different festivals.
In November 2021, Poetic Phonotheque,
in cooperation with Kulturhuset Islands
Brygge, organised the first international
poetry film festival under the name
“Nature & Culture”. It received 300
entries from around the world, of which
128 were selected and streamed on the
website. In addition, two film screenings
were organised at Kulturhuset Islands
Brygge, followed by discussions and an
art exhibition. The festival was promoted
in Copenhagen’s largest newspaper and
several directors, composers and poets
attended the event.
Article by: Frank Bergsten
for Kultivera
Photography by: Zarko Ivetic
(Ilaria Boffa, Pablo Saborio and Extinction
Rebellion Danmark during the festival)
for Kulturhuset Islands Brygge
Illustrations by Rikke Winkler Nilsson

033

MARIO Z. PUGLISI
MAPS TO FIGHT ANXIETY
034
Rafael Villegas has embarked on a
journey, an adventure, an expedition to
marvelous coasts, a literary challenge
that, in the end, has succeed perfectly,
with excellent weather and just in
time. From the inherited tradition of
countless prominent authors of dealing
with the circularity of time, and facing
what’s arcane and unknown with the
only help of their imagination and
some written words that hide a tiny
box of unreal gadgets, Villegas, thanks
to the creation of the thirteen stories
included in his book Apócrifa, has done
what some considered unthinkable:
he gave new life to a subject that has
been overexposed since the birth of
literature. He has, also, achieved this
with a mastership that seems desired
by a generation of writers who, it seems,
have forgotten the certainty of the
uncertain for the sake of a technological
postmodernism, at times overwhelming.
Regarding the difficulty that the this
book’s subject merits, namely: the
strange and the unknown; the mysteries
that bind us (without we realizing it
many a time) to each event, no matter
how small or large, that has occurred
throughout history; what’s resulted is
justly compared to a discovery of an
exotic and unexplored land, a new
continent made of letters.
In Apócrifa a handful of aspects that
are not mutually exclusive coexist and
serve each other, forming a new cluster
with the sole purpose of defying the
uncertain. Thus, we find the cosmic in it,
the mystical, the historical, the magical,
the mythological, the wonderful, the
extinct, the imaginary and the scientific
constantly working together to form
some small concentric circles that, once
linked sequentially, produce larger
circles with their diameters rotating
between them till the point of shaping a
distinguishable circularity on the entire
book. A fractal model present in each
story, paragraph and written sentence.
To find the sum of all these elements
so beautifully placed and welded as a
filigree that garnishes and, also, leads
to reflection, is not an everyday event.
About the, presumably, balanced
mixture of imagination and historical
rigor, Mexican writer Alberto Chimal
says that “it contrasts what is true with
what is possible, our hopes and fears
with the direct impression of life.”
Thus, the uncertain isn’t only common
of the realm of death and of whatever
lies beyond our existence, nor is
exclusively a frequent part of darkness
and decadence; the uncertain also
inhabits within all living and breathing
things, within the light and the wake of
each wandering comet. Actually, the
unknown rests a few inches beyond
the limits of what we take for granted.
And no matter how much we expand
our knowledge, there will always be
something unknown to us, something
mystery that make us feel a Paleolithic
fear, one that, as Chimal points out, it
contrasts with all the impressions, direct
or indirect, of life itself.
In the absence of certainty of what the
other really is, we invoke the infinite
possibilities that literature has always
suggested in our minds. The truth that
it doesn’t really matter what we are,
but all of the potentialities that we can
be. Because literature ends that primal
fear by marveling us and making us feel
wonder. It multiplies what we imagine
and makes us expect the unexpected
and long for the uncertain.
Apócrifa explores this myriad of
possibilities. It plays with the uncertain
as a child plays with a cup and ball
toy that has worn out from fulfilling its
mission once, and once again. And
when we think that the trip has come
to an end, Rafael Villegas surprises us
once more, over and over and over. His
success lays in the fact that he doesn’t
reveals what the unknown really is, but
rather forces us to embrace it and make

peace with it, and then reminds us
that it’s also a part of our very nature.
His, is mandala literature. It’s constant
evolution with respect to a center and
then implosion in the limits of what’s
finite that induces everything to return
and rebirth in the same constant
evolution with respect to a center;
recurrently, endlessly.
Villegas uses the language meticulously
to relate each story and, at the same
time, he grants the same language its
primary function of a symbol system in
which each of these symbols possesses
countless meanings.
The sign representing each concept
attributed to it and, simultaneously,
opening to new interpretations that will
depend only on who receives it. So, this
being the case, for what matters that the
definitions are not always what they are
supposed to? And what’s the matter if,
as Professor Q indicates in the book,
being sick isn’t the same as not feeling
well?
The journey through Apócrifa is very
vast and diverse, it almost seems to
contain everything. The pilgrimage
becomes an obligatory visit to a window
display that shows, with the same rigor,
hallucinations of black bears devouring
men, Yakutia’s phenomena, islands
where the world ends or earth cracks
where it resuscitates, past lives, the last
pages from a notebook found at a labor
camp, long sentences served just for
having told past stories in disobedience
of the established metric laws,
transmutations from solid to sublime
states, imaginary friends, distant icy
lands, false nuclear tests, filaments
from the tree of all stories, etc., etc., etc.
Rafael Villegas has made us part of his
challenge. With this collection of stories
he takes us into a Borges-like dream in
where we dream a story about someone
who thinks a story about the past.
And then he claims that “no man is
the owner of his dreams, only of the
memories of those dreams.” Nothing to
fear.
In the universe of Apócrifa, a universe
governed by the extreme circularity of
infinite possibilities, only the memory of
a dream is enough for us: it can be the
memory of something that happened, or
that never has, or that is about to, or that
should’ve been but wasn’t. It’s enough
for us to dream and then remember that
dream; the rest is pure ambition and
nothing else.
To go far away isn’t even necessary
to move from the place where we are,
because maybe, with a bit of luck, we’ll
end up dreaming about a journey, an
adventure, an expedition to marvelous
coasts, or a literary challenge that, in
the end, has succeed perfectly, with
excellent weather and just in time. As it
has always been written.
Mario Z Puglisi
Mexico, 2021
Apócrifa
Rafael Villegas
Paraíso Perdido Ed.,
1st Edition (March, 2018)
Mexico ISBN: 978-607-8512-41-6
035

036
ART FEATURE

JUSTIN PENOV
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038
“A home is a familiar setting. It is a
stage, a palimpsest, imbued with
memories, which in turn inform our
associations to it. My work aims to
distort that vocabulary, to bring it
to ruin, to push the narrative of the
architectural uncanny in the creation
of an uneasy space.”
-Justin Penov.

039

040

People tend to zoom out when making art,
creating imaginaries that take up great space,
so as to explain the world around them. The
opposite is true for the work of Justin Penov,
originary from Ohio, who zooms in all the way
to the guts of relationship dynamics, familiar
memories and the quiet discomfort of time,
exactly in that place within us that resembles
the homes we no longer inhabit. These minute
pieces in size are loud and stand strong as a
social commentary and as time binding art.
When moving one’s eyes through the details,
the hours pass and we are transported to stories
hidden deeply inside.
Learn of the achievements his work has earned
him, upcoming exhibitions and more at:
www.justinpenov.com
Follow on instagram: @justinpenov
041

The Red Door
Network:
042
Litteraturcentrum KVU:
Litteraturcentrum KVU is an international
literary initiative we often promote as
a league of publishers in Scandinavia.
Red Door is published through this
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Kultivera operates international cultural
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the artists and the local community. It is
the organization in charge of the Tranås
Fringe Festival and their curriculum of
activities can be seen on the issues of the
Red Door Magazine.
Write4Word: Is a West Wales community
organization with a focus on language
arts. Its director, Dominic Williams, is a
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Red Door Magazine is a quarterly Arts &
Culture publication meant to document
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There are beautiful things happening
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all of this, including the digital version of
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As you might have imagined, COVID has
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Love and poetry always,
Madam Neverstop
043

RED DOOR MAGAZINE
THE UNINHABITED ISSUE
WINTER 2021 - 22
044
WWW.REDDOORMAGAZINE.COM