When visual artist Karol Radziszewski started DIK Fagazine in 2005 in Warsaw, his idea was to create a magazine for “everyone interested in art and men”. Now in its eighth issue and having exhibited at Libraire du Palais de Tokyo, NY Art Book Fair and New Museum among others, DIK Fagazine has gone from being an experimental gay fanzine to a quite a specialist art publication. “We focus on Eastern Europe,” explains the 29-year-old, who works on the magazine with graphic artist Monika Zawadzka and his boyfriend Pawel Kubara. “We started with Ukraine and Romania, and now we’re trying to involve more artists from Estonia, Czech Republic and Serbia. And though it’s been over four years since we started DIK, it feels like in this part of Europe the issue of homosexuality still needs further exploration.”

Name a person or organization that shares your DIY ethos, and explain why.
PAPERBACK magazine, because its creators share our idea of using a magazine as a gallery space. PAPERBACK curates and has its unique take on art, while drawing upon common resources such as global networking, distribution and taking part in international fairs. It's a completely independent publication, and one that is impossible to pigeonhole.

Send us a picture/video that summarizes your view of modern life, and explain why.
We’ve been thinking about for quite a long time, and then our friend Kuba Dabrowski (photographer and author of many photos published in DIK Fagazine) showed us the computer screen. Google expresses and contains everything that is related to our modern life and people of our kind. Google is a New God!


Why do you think the recession has helped or hindered your creativity? Why?
It helped it, because the less money you get, the more effort you need to make in order to create something better.

Music for a revolution - what song sums up your attitude?
Fryderyk Chopin, Etude Op. 10, No. 12 in C minor known as "The Revolutionary Etude".

What other period inspires you the most and why?
We’re particularly inspired by the 70s and early 80s. There was a time in Poland, when magazines began to find their own voice in their art world. It was extremely important, considering the Communist censorship, which controlled all  of the publications at the time.

Read more of the YCE feature here.