ISSUE 006 // AIDHA BADR

You recently started an exciting new project (@losgatosmag), tell us a little bit more about the how, who and why.

LOS GATOS MAG is a project I started early June 2020, It’s something I’ve wanted to do for the past seven years, it was imperative to reopen the cross-cultural dialogue, to shift from a culture in which the arts of imitation and repetition are valorized, into a culture in which the notion of authenticity becomes of primary value. LOS GATOS MAG goes beyond structure, aesthetics, and beauty. LOS GATOS MAG creates a space for everybody, we don’t target a specific group, just anybody who has an open mind, people who are honest and true, people who create out of love, people who understand that there is no singular or mutually exclusive “I” and instead a collective “we”. 

LOS GATOS MAG creates a space of intimacy and understanding, surpassing ideas of class or content, the popularized and mainstream vs. the underdog, a space that is totally non structured. Although I am based in Kuwait currently, LOS GATOS MAG is not based anywhere. The content created for and featured on the mag comes from creators in Austria, Greece, Russia, Lebanon, Iraq, Dubai, New York, Italy, London, Japan, Cuba, Rio de Janeiro, Chile, Sudan and Egypt and the list goes on. The mag goes beyond the MENA region and MENA related issues. despite the eccentric nature of LOS GATOS MAG, it aspires to build a less contrived platform, where even verbosity is welcomed. It aims to create a space that goes from tolerance to acceptance of one another. This exchange then allows us to identify with one another and expand our own notions of “we”.

LOS GATOS MAG features content by people who have the willingness to be vulnerable, the willingness to present, to be human, people who don’t launder their narcissism in the name of art or culture or activism, people who “get it”. This openness can be felt, in an ambient way, through a screen, a white light, when you consume the content on LOS GATOS MAG, you feel it, and it helps you better understand yourself, and what it means to be human. LOS GATOS MAG becomes a vessel for all these emotions, everything felt all at once, you feel overwhelmed by it, cathartic even. Nobody’s getting paid to create content, everything is done out of pure love and trust for the vision of LOS GATOS MAG.

“LOS GATOS MAG features content by people who have the willingness to be vulnerable, the willingness to present, to be human, people who don’t launder their narcissism in the name of art or culture or activism, people who “get it”. ”

There’s an entire message behind your UFBG journey, could you tell us a little bit more about it?

It was a little bit of two things. The first one being a food diary, as a form of recovery. And the other one being the idea that food should always be accessible, honest and non-pretentious. I hate opening up a cooking video and seeing an insane amount of ingredients that are only accessible to like 4% of the people watching, are you trying to feed us or are you trying to show off what’s in your pantry? I created UGLY FOOD BUT GOOD to share my eating experience while simultaneously helping others make really easy, delicious, and accessible dishes, that maybe sometimes aren’t “IG Worthy” but there’s honesty in that. 

UFBG is not necessarily about food that’s subjectively “ugly”. UFBG is about the culture around consumption and the rapport between avant-gardism and the capitalist bourgeoisie. UFBG examines the reasoning for increasing association between food and art, essentially being the anti-food embodiment. It showcases food while drawing attention to the complexities of food and eating, without exploiting the medium of food. It showcases food that’s not posing as anything other than what it is, it does not aestheticize the food, it only captures it in its purest form. In its aim to be accessible and non-pretentious, all UFBG recipes and ingredients are simple, attainable, and non-intimidating. It’s by the people and for the people.

If you could go back in time and co-host an episode of ‘parts unknown’ with Anthony Bourdain, which episode would it be and why?

Hanoi, Season 8, Episode 1. Which is the episode featuring Obama, simply to ask him how he goes to sleep at night being literally a war criminal under the guise of a “nice, funny, and laid-back guy.”

You say you have recently been exploring a more honest style of painting - what does this mean to you exactly?

Throughout my painting career, I’ve felt so much shame with making any painting, I felt like a fraud, like I was always copying someone else or something else, like no painting I make totally belonged to me. I started painting myself everyday to feel some sort of ownership over my paintings. It was a painful process. So I started looking inwards, exploring my innermost desires, my shame, my fear, my guilt, and my vulnerabilities. And using these triggers to create a new body of work that is totally self-involved. All my paintings are about vanity, beauty, desire, allure. 

There are no messages I try to convey when I paint, I don’t like to have my paintings posing as anything other than what they are: my own process and catharsis. My biggest fear is being delusional, so I try to work within my own projected limits. Maybe it’s selfish, but truly what other reason would anyone paint? Painting is completely degenerate and no matter how much you try to paint about the world around you, the process is still inherently selfish, and self-centered, and there’s nothing wrong with coming to terms with that and embracing it. It at least would alleviate some of the shame and discomfort that comes along with making a painting.

What makes you happy?

Making the perfect pita bread with my beautiful mom, waking up early and anticipating the sunrise and the sublime feeling I experience, when someone tells me I have a “good podcast voice”, scrolling through the explore page and finding someone who has the same body as me and then processing my body dysmorphia. Finding a reddit thread where everyone is collectively going through the same thing I am or have the same opinions I do, basically relating and connecting with others, but not in a trauma-bond type of way. And that one post that goes like “its quick, its easy, and its free: pouring river water in your socks” “why would I do that?” “it’s quick, it’s easy, and it’s free”