Garagisme Issue V is an 88-page monograph dedicated entirely to the BMW E30, produced by the Paris-to-Los-Angeles automotive art publication founded by Gilles Uzan. Garagisme sits in a category of its own in the world of car culture publishing: it treats the automobile not as a product to be reviewed but as a cultural object to be interrogated through the lenses of contemporary art, architecture, photography, and design. Issue V is the most focused edition yet, taking a single model and building a full anthology around it.
What Is Garagisme?
Garagisme launched in 2012 and has been called by design press "the publication redefining the art of the car." Created by Gilles Uzan alongside collaborator Yego Moravia, it has attracted contributions from figures across fashion, music, and visual art over its five issues, earning it a readership that reaches well beyond conventional automotive enthusiasts. The format is deliberately oversized and physically distinctive, earning it the affectionate description of a "toilet paper magazine" in the best possible sense: unconventional, impossible to ignore, and utterly unlike anything else on a newsstand. For an in-depth look at the publication's direction, see the Walker Art Center's interview with Uzan on Garagisme VI, and the It's Nice That profile on Garagisme's approach to car culture.
Why the BMW E30?
The E30, produced from 1982 to 1994, is the BMW 3 Series generation that defined the compact sports saloon category for a decade and built a cult following that has only intensified as values have risen and the cars have become collector pieces. It is a car that sits at the intersection of everyday usability, motorsport heritage (the E30 M3 is one of the most successful touring car racers ever built), and timeless design. Garagisme's decision to devote an entire experimental, sensual issue to it is not an act of nostalgia but a recognition that the E30 repays sustained visual and intellectual attention. Gilles Uzan has constructed something that reads as much as a museum catalog as it does a magazine.
The Scottie Cameron Series
Among the visual essays inside Issue V, the Scottie Cameron series stands out for its scale and ambition. The images demand to be seen large, which makes the oversized print format of Garagisme exactly the right vehicle for them. Uzan's editorial instinct to commission work that would only fully reveal itself at magazine size rather than on a screen is one of the things that keeps Garagisme relevant in an era when most automotive content has migrated to video and social media.
Garagisme Issue V is available now at TheArsenale. Explore more automotive art and culture publications in the TheArsenale book collection, including RIOCAM Car and Fashion Book Volume 2 and Print "The Beast".
