hurrengoa
napartheid fanzine library at arteleku odlok   Mister Desastre says that he works at the fanzine library (ha ha ha) but we know that really he’s some type of subversive paper-chomping monster. We found him holed up in his new hideaway down at Arteleku... * fanzine: a publication written by and for fans

Where did the idea for this fanzine library come from?
I dunno. There was the Desastre fanzine on the one hand and then I fell into the evil clutches of the Napartheid sect. They enslaved me to this project. I think it was about 1997 when I started, but quite a few fanzines had arrived at Napartheid in the years before that. I found piles of them rotting under tables all over the place. We decided to sort them all out before they became ripe for shredding. Napartheid was still in its suckling infant days and needed to communicate with all the outside world (and when I say all the outside world I mean all the outside world), it needed to make itself known to other fanzines.

So, what’s it been like so far?
Oh, lots of ups and downs. At first we had to sort out and catalogue everything. And as well as that we had to get more mags, get in touch with people to maintain some stable sort of communication. The whole thing really grew and when our little treasure was all ready we made it into a touring exhibition. We brought it round from town to town and it was on show in loads of places. It was even hijacked – that was those despicable commie separatists Vladimir Brigadak – but we’ve taken it fairly handy for the last year and a half. The whole thing seems to be taking off again now that we have stuck it in Arteleku.

Is it true that you can visit the library on internet?
Yep. There are others you can visit as well. There are loads of catalogues and there’s the Poitiers Fanzinothèque. Our work with the net is actually twice as much. The thing was that we were basically on indefinite leave when the whole e-zine boom exploded. But I have to say that we do deserve some credit, I mean, so far we’ve scanned and uploaded 3,000 fanzine covers.

You must have spent a small fortune on envelopes and stamps...
Thanks to the Fanzine library I have become a bosom buddy of the postman. Some people even think that my father’s a postman coz I was always sending him down to the post office... a few people even complained to him that their post wasn’t getting to their homes.

What can we find at the library that we can’t get anywhere else?
It’s been put together with a lot of blood sweat and tears. And I don’t mean that as a metaphor. People wear the emotions and desires on their sleeves in fanzines. There are no limits, no censorship, everyone does whatever they like. You won’t come across any conventionalisms, financial interests, fears... I’d also like to mention the variety. Think of any possible subject and you’re sure to find something on it in a fanzine.

Give us an example
All kinds. About turds, about women who don’t lather on the leg wax, about animal experiments, there are priceless opinions on the Basque Country, there are gothic ones too, paranoid conspiracies, maths, music, sex... the list is endless.

What can Arteleku give to the Fanzine Library and the Fanzine Library to Arteleku?
Arteleku offers stability and a place where they are available to people. Accessibility in a word. The Fanzine Library offers a whole new world, an never-ending source of information that is totally free of officialdom and the authorities.

IN NUMBERS:
Total number of zinez: 3.969
Countries: 59 (5 kontinente + Marte)
Titles: 1.650
Languages: 30