Did you know that you can ski in Morocco, in the Congo, and in Lesotho? Do you know how the population of the mountains of Peru or the Atlas live? What the descendents of the Incas have for lunch? Do you know about the world’s largest cave in Vietnam, discovered only 15 years ago, so deep and wide it has its own underground mountains? Or about this hiking crew founded by a French Rastafarian man to take a break from the city life and have meaningful conversations with his friends? USELESS FIGHTERS is the new magazine that takes you on an adventure to new destinations, inspires your future travels, and will show you the world from a whole new point of view. We are, and surely you are already too familiar with the aesthetics of Alpine chalets, Swiss cheese and ski slopes. The immense beauty of the people and the landscapes excluded from the Euro-centric vision of the mountains and tourism is precisely what is so dear to us and that we have decided to share with you. Who owns the likeness of the mountains on the logos of Paramount Pictures, Evian or the North Face? Why have microplastics been found on Mount Everest? We also shed light on the business — sometimes a dirty business — of the mountain: How much polyester do brands of technical gear and outdoor clothing use, spreading crazy amounts of microplastics in nature and slowly poisoning it with every hike? Our title USELESS FIGHTERS is a tribute to Lionel Terray’s “Les Conquérants de l’inutile” (“Conquerors of the useless”) and speaks to the strange need among hikers to risk their lives to reach new summits, go where no human has gone before, to look from new vantage points at this world threatened by global warming and pollution. A pointless fight? Maybe. But an utterly beautiful one. This is a lushly produced publication that takes one of the most important landforms on Earth as a starting point to look at creativity, politics and culture. With contributions from artists, photographs and fashion creators such as Francis Alÿs, Lea Colombo, Setsumasa Kobayashi, Philippe Parreno, Yukari Chikura, Nigel Cabourn, Marvin Leuvrey, Abdellah Taïa, Francesca Gavin, Karim Boukercha, Quentin De Briey, Daquisiline Gomis… It's a document of the people who live, work, ride, climb, cross, play, explore, hike, drive across and creatively engage with mountain ranges. USELESS FIGHTERS is a magazine published by PERMANENT FILES, a new creative joint venture between Ramdane Touhami, and Léonard Vernhet. The latter is also the creative director of EPOCH, also distributed by PKB.
