Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a number of Eastern European countries have been officially welcomed into the more wealthy and privileged family known as the 'European Union.' Despite the fact that their Western counterparts have (slowly but gradually) come to acquire—along with a baffling shroud of toxic preconceptions—some generalised notions about Eastern Europe, very few particles of information about its art, culture, society, and politics have been transmitted. Our magazine seeks to address (some of) the contradictions that rule this area of Europe, going beyond simple expressions of dissatisfaction or angry thoughts.
KAJET Journal arose from an urgent necessity to offer a forum for Eastern European tales in Titan, a (former?) working-class neighborhood of Bucharest. KAJET takes its name from the Easternised form of the French cahier, which means notebook, and aims to become an everlasting historical record. It epitomizes the KAJET ethos: a textual and visual collection of ideas, an aggregation of forgotten tales, a self-expanding string of views and viewpoints, a continuous work in progress of a history that continues re-writing itself; basically, an Eastern European encounter diary. With KAJET carrying the searing and onerous legacy of this region's previous samizdat endeavors, the initiative aims to create an alternative medium where artists and academics may actively co-exist and flourish (not in the least in imagination & in writing, but hopefully more than that).
