Auctoritas is a form of authority that is created primarily through an individual’s charisma. In politics, it is what remains when law is wholly suspended. If left unchecked, it can become a self appointed legitimacy so powerful that neither reason nor fact can change its direction.

Our levels of power, privilege, opportunity and influence are borne from our relation to the hegemony. Subverting or actualizing that relation takes engagement and examination, more so when those in command succumb to fiction.

For its first issue, Contango has sourced works from writers and artists who deal with social and political power relations. Specifically, their explorations through theory and praxis provide critical forms of consideration and implementation.