Information
About:
Brand-New-Life is a scholar-led Diamond Open Access journal that reimagines publishing as a space for critical inquiry and collective practice across visual art, art criticism, artistic research and the humanities.
We approach writing as a practice of articulation—thinking with and alongside artistic approaches and conditions of production. Our work engages deeply with situated critique, institutional and infrastructural analysis, and the politics of publishing. For us publishing is not simply a means of distributing content—it is both subject and method. We are committed to queering common genres and formats of art criticism, academic writing, and practice-oriented research across media. The hyphen in Brand-New-Life becomes a symbol of connection: linking what is often kept apart, forging relations between disciplines, practices, and publics that might otherwise remain separate.
In an era of extractive technologies and inequitable knowledge infrastructures, Brand-New-Life uses the framework of diamond open access to create alternative conditions for writing, reading, and knowing. We work continuously and organise our publishing around thematic cycles, while individual contributions appear when they are ready. In doing so, we resist the demand for constant output and the logic of immediacy.
If you value our work, consider becoming a member (student and low-income discounts are available). We are independent, but collaborate with individuals, collectives, institutions, and universities.
Ownership and Governance:
Brand-New-Life is owned and published by Verein B-N-L, a nonprofit association based in Switzerland. The association board is legally and financially responsible for the journal, while the editorial board independently determines its intellectual direction and makes editorial and publication decisions. Editorial decisions are made independently of funders, institutional partners, and advertisers.
Diamond Open Access Policy:
Founded in 2015, Brand-New-Life has operated as a Diamond Open Access journal since October 2024. All contributions are made openly available immediately upon publication, without payment, registration, or embargo. Brand-New-Life charges no submission fees, editorial-processing fees, article-processing charges, publication fees, subscription fees, or reader-access fees.
As a diamond open access journal we are committed to making our output accessible and reusable. All contributions are deposited in Zenodo/LORY for long-term preservation and receive a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). Contributions are currently published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence CC-BY-NC-ND License 4.0 International. Authors retain copyright and grant Brand-New-Life a non-exclusive right of first publication. Authors remain free to republish, translate and further develop their work, subject to any third-party rights. Images and videos integrated into the contribution are not included in the CC BY-NC-ND License. For any use not permitted by legal copyright exceptions, authorization from the respective copyright holders is required.
Editorial Process:
Our goal is to encourage pointed, thought provoking, and practice-oriented writings about art. To this end, we have developed an editorial process that involves close reading, annotation, discussion and review. We see such an editorial process as a valuable tool for engaging with peers and for further developing art practice, art criticism and practice-oriented research.
All commissioned and submitted contributions undergo substantive editorial review by at least two members of the editorial team. Review considers relevance to the journal’s scope, intellectual, artistic and methodological rigour, and contextual and ethical responsibility. Contributions may undergo revision before publication. Editors with a conflict of interest do not participate in the relevant decision, and guest-edited thematic cycles remain subject to the journal’s regular editorial standards.
Accepted contributions undergo copy-editing and, where relevant, translation. Authors approve the final version before publication.
Contact:
We commission directly our authors, but if you would like us to know your work, you can contact us here:
office@brand-new-life.org
Breisacherstrasse 32
CH-8037 Zürich
Editorial Board:
Lucie Kolb, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Lara Kothe, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Pablo Müller, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Barbara Preisig, Zurich University of the Arts
Judith Welter, Zurich University of the Arts
Editor:
Jonas von Lenthe, Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW
Former Editors and Collaborators:
Ines Kleesattel, Ann-Kathrin Eickhoff, Anastasia Kubrak, Claire Hoffmann, Alicia Reymond, Luca Beeler, Julia Moritz
Art Direction:
Sabo Day
Code:
FLX Labs
Editions:
Julia Künzi
Font:
LARS (Bold Decisions)
Legal Adviser:
Annatina Menn
Accounting:
Simone Gerber
Support (2015-2024):
Brand-New-Life has been supported by Lucerne Open Access Repository (LORY) – Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek, Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung, the UBC Culture Foundation, the Temperatio foundation, the Ernst und Olga Gubler-Hablützel foundation, the Federal Office of Culture FOC, the Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, the Canton Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Funding and Cultural Promotion, the canton of Zug, the municipality of Teufen.
Advertising Information:
Brand-New-Life constitutes an important and unique voice for art criticism in Switzerland. We combine nuanced coverage of current debates, exhibitions and events with background research on the art world and artistic perspectives. Brand-New-Life relies on multilingualism as well as on the means of online journalism, thereby reaching all those who want to stay current anywhere and anytime, without giving up on quality journalism. Through an advertisement appearing on the home page of Brand-New-Life for six or twelve months you reach a professional, art-loving audience in Switzerland and beyond its borders, while at the same time helping us to establish an innovative debate culture about current art events. We will be happy to provide you with information regarding our rates and terms: office@brand-new-life.org.
Disclaimer:
We hold the submitted personal data in strict confidence and neither pass it on nor sell it to a third party.