One hopes to return from a holiday with a tan, some peace of mind, and a kitsch fridge magnet (see: this issue’s cover). But no matter how serene the locale, placehood is always complicated. In this issue of TANK, we investigate travel’s uncanny resonances and transformative capabilities.

Jack Young explores the particulars of poinsettias, while the Flaherty Film Seminar relocates to Thailand to examine cinematic reality. Caroline Issa meets gorillas in Rwanda and penguins in Antarctica, while a ten-day Belmond train trip across Peru brings forth potatoes and alpacas. Isabelle Bucklow excavates layers of history in Quebec, Kinza Shenn finds love, grief and water in Charleston, Leo Robson is knocked Sideways by San Luis Obispo and a new exhibition in Luxembourg considers women and technoculture.

Montblanc make words come to life to celebrate a century of the Meisterstück, Dior pay homage to Scotland’s iconoclastic fashion spirit and Rimowa rest their case. In cities across the world, we get a trim, get baked and clean up our act. Philip White serves face and Casa Fila score a grand slam. Plus, we speak to Rachel Kushner on crooked cops, Thomas Hirschhorn on the truth of art, Michael Taussig on drawing as dancing and Arum Natzorkhang on Sumerian penis-enlargement spells.