The Finnish Small Print Explosion: Punk Fanzines 1977–1982

July, 5th – 10h30 – 11h00 – Opening Exihibition

‘The Finnish Small Print Explosion: Punk fanzines 1977–1982’
Artist: Juuso Paaso and Juho Hänninen

Description: The arrival of punk caused an explosion of smallprint fanzines in Finland. During the period from 1977–1982 over a hundred fanzine titles began to be published. Mostly the zines’ lifespan was limited to a couple of years but few stretched to the early 1990’s. Altogether over 930 fanzine issues were published by the fanzinisters who were inspired by punk. Circa 800 of the fanzines have been digitized and are readable in the online archive ‘Oranssin pienlehtiarkisto 1977–1982’. The exhibition consists of circa 20 blow-up posters from the fanzine pages. The punk fanzines were inspired stylistically by the 1960’s underground magazines and contemporary pupil magazines and other punk fanzines. The beginning and spread of the phenomenon happened simultaneously with the spread of punk and the do it yourself -ethos. Technologically the rise of photocopying and office-sized off-set printers added fuel to the fire. The fanzines were mostly made by male fanzinisters. Less than ten titles were made by a female lead. The themes of the fanzines include but are not limited to punk music, comics, poems and other art, and essays about popular culture and lifestyle. Music was primarily handled with interviews, essays and record and concert reviews. It was not uncommon that the interviewee wrote and laid out their own interview. Letter writing and the exchange of fanzines (and records) created a network of connected punks in a sparsely populated country. In addition to mail, the fanzines spread in punk related events such as festivals. More common were editions from tens to hundreds. Unique editions were neither completely uncommon. During the peak years 1978–1981 the fanzines created an unofficial public sphere that was independent from other hobbies, occupations and political parties. The punk fanzines were followed by hardcore punk fanzines that are yet to be explored.

Oranssi Ry is a Helsinki based grass-roots organization that was established by a squatting collective in 1990. In the 63 apartments Oranssi administers the organization provides housing for under 25-yearold and underprivileged persons. From 2014 Oranssi has run a cultural space in Suvilahti (Helsinki) that provides space for practicing during the daytime and music events in the evenings. The archive was put together by avid DIY-organizers Juuso Paaso and Juho Hänninen. In addition, Juuso Paaso is a diverse musician who made his MA thesis about Finnish underground and punk print media (2015). Juho Hänninen is a bachelor of economic and social history and an ex-fanzinister himself (2012–2017) who has continued archiving Finnish punk music, artefacts and oral history.

URL: http://oranssi.net/pienlehdet/lehdet.html