About
gg place is an international, independent, quarterly print publication based in Prague, Rotterdam and Seoul.
We feature impactful stories from all around the planet, in many forms and languages, and in collaboration with writers, researchers, artists and translators.
Our curation process is inspired by the practice of cultural anthropology; centring the little-known, following essential questions, and embracing curiosity, resistance and creativity.
Each issue is dedicated to a specific theme that reacts to current challenges and broadens our understanding of the events, environments and changes that surround us.
In this era of blue-light, we decided to go physical. The print is accessible worldwide through an expanding orbital network of enthusiastic readers and contributors. Our goal is to make it to your favourite bookshop.
a place for...
gen global
humans of this interconnected world.
grave groove
turning fatigue into shared action.
good game
enjoying the ride.
growing gardens
nourishing community cooperation.
glowing guide
making sense of things.
humans of this interconnected world.
grave groove
turning fatigue into shared action.
good game
enjoying the ride.
growing gardens
nourishing community cooperation.
glowing guide
making sense of things.
Founding Editor
Hi! I am a nomadic anthropologist and writer. I studied social and cultural anthropology at Leiden University (BSc) and Amsterdam University (MSc). Along my journey, I found interest in marginal knowledge, poetics of translation and combining academia with creative expression. I started this magazine to connect a wide network of inspiring people, and explore the intriguing layers of life.
Get in touch
Would you like to reach out for a partnership enquiry? We are happy to connect with you.
You can support our launch and buy Issue 1 here.
01 / 2026
What is the meaning of touch today? This issue invites you to explore our new contact with creativity, identity and each other in this digitalized and globalized age. From material to information, from losses to hopes, let's visit the changes in our connection and the dreams of getting closer to each other.
Selected features will be available in Arabic, Czech, Korean, Japanese and Ukrainian languages.
Cover photos by Olsdee Photography @olsdee
Hedgehog Has Seen the Horse
It is the moment you wander too far into the feed and see something that reorganises your skull. Norstein's animated classic Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) becomes a small parable about touch in a mediated age: awe, dread, anonymous grace, than the awkward return to tea, jam and a friend.
Essay by Tom Sanders
A writer and sometimes a performer, whose work drifts through surveillance, memory and myth. He has written a play in which statues speak, a story about a ZOO with no exits, and journalism that tastes faintly of iron and ash. His fiction and essays circle the eerie, the civic, and the unresolved. He reports from the fog but tries not to live in it.
Lost and Found in Virtual Worlds
On memory, belonging, and the internet beyond capitalism. Preserving Worlds is a documentary series about aging social virtual worlds, intriguing online spaces that have been active since as early as the 90s, and the vibrant online communities built around them.
Using an ethnographic approach, the authors reach beyond the spilling pixels to capture how people form bonds and spend time in these delicate digital environments. You are invited to join this expedition.
Interview with Derek Murphy and Mitchell Zemil
The creators of the Preserving Worlds documentary series.
Derek works as a public librarian in Boston, Massachusetts, but does film work in his spare time. Mitchell is a professional animator and adjunct professor in Brooklyn, New York. Together, they are a pair of filmmakers who have been working together ever since they started filming urban exploration trips in their hometown of Sarasota, Florida. That footage became the basis of an experimental documentary, Sarasota Half in Dream.
Hajichi: Resistance in the Ink
This is a story of touch woven through skin. For centuries, Ryukyuan women, indigenous to the Okinawa islands, wore intricate hand tattoos, called ‘hajichi’. However, this sacred practice, along with their lives, was heavily burdened by colonial oppression.
The owner of a tattoo studio in Okinawa tells us more about this practice, struggles and the new generations of Ryukyuan artists who are finding ways to keep the tradition alive.
Interview with Minami Shimoji / Mim Drawing
Born and raised in Okinawa, Mim is a body Artist, occupational therapist and a musician. Daily, she deepens her learning about Okinawan (Ryukyu) history and culture, tribal tattoos such as Hajichi, and the spirituality of her ancestors.
Introductory text, translation to Japanese and interview by:
Tereza Kovalská
An aspiring writer focusing on asian countries and stories about their unique culture. A graduate of East Asian Studies she mainly explores Japan Korea and China but doesnt shy away from other asian cultures. She is currently working on her debut book “Lost Among Salarymen” which she will hope will serve as a guide to anyone wishing to live and work in Japan one day.
The Anti-Insanity Ritual
“When people are not up to evil, they are...” Buried deep under global news of destruction and anxieties lie the hidden and forgotten deeds of good, the tales of dedication, hard work, and efforts towards brighter tomorrows. Anti-insanity Ritual is a virtual project, assembling them into chronicles of hope for humanity.
Reflection by tt.
A thinker who writes rather than a writer who thinks, Drawn to the terrain between disciplines — where the humanities, science, literature, art, and mathematics refuse to exist separately. Where the past continues to speak inside the present.
There is a particular reverence for the dead here, not as relics but as quiet collaborators in the ongoing work of the living. The past is studied closely; the present met with discernment.
Thought is kept nourished; language — attentive, not just a carrier of information, but part of the composition. Inquiry remains restless, as curiosity maps the ground mindful of those who walked it first.
Accompanying art and translation to Ukrainian by gl1tc4_s0n:
A glitch artist and techspressionist from Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Levant Divided: Geography or Colonial Design?
“At a time long before borders divided the Levant, the lands that we now call Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria stretched wide, where earth and sea moved and connected together as one.”
This essay traces the past organic coherence of the region of West Asia and its violent colonial disruption, challenging the imperial lens and offering a dream of shared futures.
Essay by Jwan Zreiq
A Palestinian writer based in Amman, Jordan, writing from the perspective of the diaspora. Her work explores identity, memory, and language as tools of anti-colonial reclaiming, situating the struggle for a free Palestine within broader movements for liberation across the Global South, Indigenous communities, and marginalized peoples worldwide.
Translated to Arabic by the author.
How To Find Your Underground
From vinyl, tapes and CDs to digital streaming and then back again. The sudden connection of the 21st century opened access to a wide range of sounds, that we otherwise would have never heard, including the efforts of alternative currents from around the world. Looking beyond the tall towers of K-Pop, this unfiltered reflection on a student research seeks to describe the fluid underground music in Seoul city. Let it inspire you to connect with your own creative spaces.
Reflection by Iba Swan
Urban legends, the real world, and perhaps something in between. Making anthropology more human and documenting ordinary rebellions.
Translated to Korean by Kim Jun-Yop.
Sarangi, the Melody of Revival
Vincent, the only amplified sarangi player in the world, joined us for an interview. He takes us on a vivid journey of his rare Indian bowed instrument, as well as his music career. The sarangi becomes yet another case of a living heritage. Despite hardships, it has been kept alive by unique international connections, sailing from materiality, on the experimental tides, and towards neoteric shores.
Interview with Vincent Swierstra
Based in Amsterdam, he is one of the few sarangi players in the Netherlands. He likes to combine the raw, mystic sound of the sarangi with electronic music. In 2021, Vincent released his first EP, The Sarangi Sessions Vol. 1, a collaboration with four hip-hop producers. In March 2025, he released a second Sarangi Sessions EP, this time working with techno producers. Recently, he finished a master's at Amsterdam University in Cultural and Social Anthropology. He wrote his thesis about the past, present, and future of the sarangi.
Analogue Animation: Already Beyond AI
A personal reflection on craftsmanship, cultural identity, and passion in the age of inhuman efficiency. As the creative world becomes increasingly reliant on centralized digitalization Chaerin’s words show us that the material we touch with our hands matters.
Reflection by Im Chaerin
An experimental filmmaker from South Korea. With the use of craftsmanship and distinctive materials, she explores gender issues and sexual imagery. By combining and experimenting with analog and digital print techniques, she makes new visual languages that challenge conventional norms of gender and sex. Her films have competed in widely-known festivals
Translated to Korean by Kim Jun-Yop.
02 / 2026
TO MOVE
From the pathways in our bodies and minds to those we walk and shape. In the second issue, we trace the kinetic energy of our interconnected cultures. The issue is currently open to submissions! The deadline is ongoing.
We welcome essays, projects, interviews, reportage, photography, prose, poetry, artwork and experimental works exploring the following topics:
*embodiment
*migration
*global identities
*rhythm
*vitality
*activism
*travel
*multi-species perspectives