Note from the editor:
What is a renaissance? We interview His Holiness Pope Francis on the commodification of our souls. Writer Ekow Eshun reviews Web Bois’ double consciousness. Curator Aria Dean reviews Future’s Mask Off and Black excellence. Photographer Stephen Shore, in conversation with Jack Self, reviews pictures of the present. Artist Issy Wood reviews Diet Coke. Editor and NHS worker Rebecca Sharp reviews the Socialist Patients Collective, while Brady Ng and Hera Chan review Hong Kong protest strategies.

This issue also features Huw Lemmey reviews about Pietro Aretino, the Renaissance master of pornographic literature and blackmail. Traum Inc. with Real Review present a Renaissance collaboration inspired by Marcus Aurelius and Giotto. Artist Anna Blessmann reviews absent artefacts and Indigenous activist Pekeri Ruska reviews the Aboriginal concept of country. Peer Illner reviews WhatsApp and surveillance capitalism, while Adjustments Agency reviews groundbreaking ceremonies. Ahmed and Rashid Bin Shabib review pigeon architecture and artist Ben Cullen Williams reviews Antarctica (through the lens of AI neural networks). Charlie Robin Jones reviews horoscopes, Michel de Montaigne reviews solitude and Jack Self reviews the internet.