Vaud and Geneva: EPIC, the online cultural magazine, disappears

– EPIC, online magazine, closes after ten years of service

A unique reflection of the local scene, the publication will close at the end of June after its thousandth article. Pillar of the editorial team, Clément Bourdin, 30 years old, recounts this volunteer adventure.

Published today at 7:15 a.m.

EPIC, an online French-speaking cultural magazine, will stop its activities at the end of June, after ten years of voluntary work.

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Theater, cinema, literature, music, visual arts and performing arts… All or almost everything that the local avant-garde has produced over the last ten years, mainly from Geneva, also from Lausanne to a certain extent, has been chronicled by EPIC.

EPIC, or Promotion Space for Imagination and Culture, celebrated a decade of existence in 2024. The online magazine published its first article in September 2014. A decade has passed since then, which has seen the small team of editors accumulate a rich editorial output, providing an exhaustive window on emerging culture.

The first novel, the first record, the first steps of the artist seeking an audience, EPIC made it its mission to defend it. A musical example? Before the talents of NnavyBilly Bird or Pekodjinn are recognized, EPIC had already talked about it.

Fateful course

But the adventure ends. At the end of June 2024, EPIC will cease its activities. Based solely on volunteers, the media lacks collaborators. For editorial contributions, in particular for the administration of the structure. A difficulty specific to the associative world, when there is a need to renew teams. Ten years is, for many associations, the fateful milestone. For EPIC, the end of a unique project.

Founded by four students now in their thirties, the magazine has seen around fifty contributors join its ranks, the latest arrivals aged around twenty. Over the course of this decade, the most invested will have proposed up to a hundred subjects, others will have limited themselves to a quick foray.

Nomadic writing

It was between 2016 and 2022 that the online magazine was in full swing, surviving the Covid despite the absence of public cultural representations, by offering innovative formats, notably its “Readings on sofas”, literary recommendations, or its playlists of local musicians. “The team met regularly, we were friends.”

We remember the creperie des Grottes, for a long time a meeting point for this nomadic editorial team, which met in the beginning in the rehearsal room of one of the founders, in Lancy. “Finding a permanent, affordable workspace proved complicated. Our status as a multidisciplinary association did not meet the criteria for public aid.”

At peak times, there were a dozen of them at the helm. There are only six left today. Including Clément Bourdin, born in 1994, collaborator since 2015. He studied political science before training in public management. The local section of the “Tribune de Genève” once welcomed him as an intern. THE FIFDH will hire her as assistant to the director. Now employed by a public policy evaluation office, Clément Bourdin continues to chair the EPIC committee, proofread articles, manage partnerships, etc. Until the end.

Symbolic salary

“We have reached almost a thousand articles in ten years. About a hundred each year, with one publication every two or three days.” Clément Bourdin added, not without a certain sadness but with determination: “EPIC will stop at the end of June. Until then, I intend to publish the thousandth article. I like round numbers. There are currently 993.” The day after our interview, Clément Bourdin already signed 994^e subject, dedicated to the Geneva rapper Monkey Dola.

“Apart from the maintenance of the site, which hardly cost more than 400 or 500 francs per year, we have established partnerships with cultural institutions such as Le Poche, the Théâtre Saint-Gervais, Le Galpon, Les Créatives or the A la Pointe buvette . These are the only advertisements that we accepted. Total? “EPIC’s annual budget has never exceeded 1000 francs.” As for subsidies, their accumulation over ten years will reach at best 10,000 francs.

What else can we say about the audience? Currently, EPIC attracts between 300 and 400 visitors daily. Against 600 again in 2022, when the platform published several articles each week. Clément Bourdin, finally, to mention this purely symbolic salary which rewarded the editors of the magazine. “Knowing that we were legitimizing the approach of an artist through our articles, and receiving their words of thanks in return, that was our satisfaction.” EPIC filled a necessary niche in local culture. It’s up for grabs again.

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