The first issue of NU considers the idea of ‘habitat’, how we as humans occupy space and relate to our surroundings and each other. Is habitat limited in space and time? Is it shifting as a consequence of mass extinction, climate change, inequality or growing world population? Can we still build utopias with the idea of inhabiting them? And how can mere reflection on this topic gain relevance in this time of obviously shifting paradigms?

These are just some of the questions the editors posed to a diverse group of international contributors. And they responded with great enthusiasm. In NU you will encounter a multitude of voices, art forms and genres that are each given equal space and importance - a poem followed by a journalistic text, an artwork next to a short story. You will not find answers, but keys to spaces, boxes where questions pop out, mostly questions that urge us to live better.

We are delighted to have the contributions of Danny Treacy, Deborah Siebenhofer, Frank Willems, Igor Moritz, Irina De Herdt, James Bacchi-Andreoli, James Peake, Joanna Piotrowska, Kathrin Blum, Marjan Suffys, Melanie Stidolph, Roeland Peeters, Sylvie Marie and Wouter De Broeck in this issue.

NU was designed by Julia Syrzistie.

Contents

Foreword by Wouter De Broeck and Stefanie Braun

City Belts in Vialand by Irina De Herdt

Photographs and sculpture by Danny Treacy

Solidarity in the Eye of the Storm Frank Willems

Suzanne by Marjan Suffys

Photographs by Melanie Stidolph

My Home the Forest by Kathrin Blum

Cut-up poetry by Sylvie Marie

Paintings by Igor Moritz

Borgocapo - Confessions of a Caveman by Roeland Peeters

Poems by James Peake and linocuts by James Bacchi-Andreoli

Fluid by Deborah Siebenhofer

Photographs by Joanna Piotrowska

Montalegre by Wouter De Broeck

Biographies