Ricarda Messner

Bio

Ricarda Messner is a Berlin-based publisher, curator, writer and editor. At 23 she co-founded Flaneur Magazine, a world traveling independent publication that focusses on one specific street and its inhabitants in a different metropolis for each issue. So far, Flaneur has been to Berlin, Leipzig, Montréal, Rome, Athens, Moscow, and–most recently–Sao Paulo. At 26 Ricarda launched another magazine, Sofa, a lean and shiny outlet that bridges the gap between high brow and low brow discourses. When not busy creating print publications, she works at ZEITmagazin, develops film ideas, and curates art events and personalized libraries. In 2016, Forbes featured Ricarda in their 30 under 30 list, and she’s still young enough to theoretically make the list at least once more. Here she talks about the merits of naiveté and youthful enthusiasm, the democratization of culture, and how to turn states of desperation into life-changing projects.