Alt.Space.Alliance Invite to – reading group and general meeting
Saturday 27 August 2005
reading group 6-8 p.m.
alt.space.alliance overall meeting 8 p.m.
address: 4 Lloyd Square, London WC1X 9BA (10 minutes from Angel; 15
minutes from King’s Cross)
Please, feel free to forward this invitation to friends and allies you
think may be interested in joining us.
alt.space.alliance is a newly formed and forming global alternative
space, artists’ collective and nomadic projects alliance. The idea
behind the initiative is to try to generate a set of close alliances
between a number of groups, collectives and spaces working
collaboratively with politically engaged and interventionist
practices, partly as a way to maintain an on-going dialogue around the
different strategies and tactics at our disposal, and partly as a
platform for exchange of material and archives for screening, display,
etc. at least partially outside of institutional and commercial
systems of distribution, and for the development of collaborations and
other forms of interaction (arranging/hosting events, lectures,guests,
travelling between cities and contexts, etc.). After attending
meetings in Chicago, a few folks initiated the formation of a local
group to be linked, hopefully, to emerging alt.space.alliance cells in
various locations throughout the world.
At informal picnics in interesting physical spaces (a city
skyscraper’s rooftop, an East London cemetary),aims of the group have
been clarified and expanded. Alt.spaces occur as an emergent dialogue
about spaces, in spaces; this alt.spaces ‘cell’ is based in, and
therefore focused on London. alt.space.alliance London will feature
reading groups, project presentations, and other member-led
initiatives, with the ends of bridging the familiar theory-practise
divide and ultimately, of ‘making stuff’ (what some call ‘art’ though
we recognise the provisionality of the term).
The proposed series of reading groups and gatherings intend to explore
the political economy of our space, both practically and
theoretically. The group conceives of alt.spaces in a number of ways,
with ‘alternative’ ‘space’ traversing individual, collective, and
geographic levels: creating spaces of intimacy and face-to-face
connection; exploring spaces for producing and distributing art
outside dominant avenues; critically responding to the politics of the
space of our city as well as contributing to more humane ways of using
and developing the geographic space so as to benefit everyone. As we
look to connect activism, theory, reading and art around the question
of space in London, developments such as the Olympic bid may provide
opportunities for explicit projects along these lines.
The next meeting of the London alt.space.alliance will be on Saturday
27 August. As a more expansive kick-off of the group, this meeting
will be comprised of two parts – first, a reading group from 6-8 p.m.
(pot luck food to be shared during the discussion), and second, the
meeting proper (discussion and consensus-based decision-making about
what the group will do next, beyond this initial reading group).
The reading group will focus on the first 20 pages of Chapter
2, ‘Social Space’, of The Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre (you
can find the text on: http://www.ccred.org/socialspace.doc).
After the 27th August meeting, the reading group will meet separately
on a bi-weekly basis. The overall group’s meetings will be held
monthly, on the third Saturday evening of the month. (Note that folks
who attend the ‘regular’ meeting of the alliance are not required to
attend the reading group – and vice versa, and others are invited to
start up reading groups or other initiatives that reflect their
interests as well.)
Details:
date: Saturday 27 August 2005
time: Lefebvre reading group 6-8 p.m. (pot luck dinner during)
alt.space.alliance overall meeting 8 p.m.
address: 4 Lloyd Square, London WC1X 9BA
10 minutes from Angel; 15 minutes from King’s Cross
BYOB (and for reading group, bring some food to share)
