Tape Modern got evicted. We were aware that it will come soon but the beliefs and security came a week earlier than our sources let us believe, so we were taken off guard. In an ideal world, we would have been ready, reinforced the barricades and knowing where we would move. Alas, we only had a list of possible buildings we could move into, but we had not done our research on them yet. It turned out none of them was viable so we ended up house hunting while part of the crew stood watch for all our gear. In the end, we only spent one night under the sky and it didn’t even rain. 

Naturally, we wanted to get indoors as soon as possible, so once we found a half suitable building we moved in. The moving process in itself was quite a hassle. In our last eviction, moving from the Cozy to the Naan Bakery the distance between buildings was less than a 100 meters. Our crew and the gallery don’t have our own van yet, so most of the stuff needed to be moved by hand. (Many many thanks to Zoe who came to help us with her van and everyone else who came to our aid.) Luckily our new building wasn’t too far, 1,2 miles according to Google maps, but with all the gallery equipment, tools, scaffolding, kitchen, everyone’s personal stuff, lights, amps, band gear, instruments and our swap shop of up-cycled treasures, the mountain of stuff felt quite overwhelming in comparison to the size of our crew. 

The new building was gorgeous and massive! It seemed to be in good shape and our minds instantly saw the possibilities of the vast open space. On top of that, it still had the luxury of many private rooms for bedrooms. 

After spending a night in our new building we realised that we can only get electricity for half of it and no water. The worst surprise though was to find that the supporting columns of the warehouse are rotten which makes the building too unsafe to stay in. This all means that we are trying to find a better place as soon as possible.

I would also like to acknowledge, raise awareness and send solidarity to another active squat in Manchester: the crew staying in Ancoats was evicted last weekend in a horrible display of unprovoked violence and brutality. Young women were dragged out of their beds half naked, spat on and slandered. Verbal abuse, broken ribs, jaw, knee and some bruises were the overall damage on the crew. The security company and beliefs were stepping over their legal bounds and assaulted unarmed people taken off guard in their home. Naturally, squatters can expect evictions, that’s how it goes, but this was a horrific display of misuse of power and authority. Plain brutality distributed by the authorities that we are supposed to trust to enact the law. It was despicable.

Solidarity and love to the whole crew! Luckily they had a place checked out beforehand and they got a safe place to sleep after the horrible eviction. 

I will write follow-ups on this incident since this kind of criminal behaviour must be held to account and this will not be the end of it. This all needs a more thorough analysis once we have settled in and have had time to chew on what happened.

In the meantime, other news on the gallery:

We have managed to get a sponsor for a Tape Modern gallery van! We are currently on a short hiatus to find a good home and to craft the most amazing and well-equipped van for our mobile studio/gallery. Stay tuned! Our next show will be coming up in the autumn and we’ll keep you posted. 

We have had two events in the studio, they were like pilot runs of how to move everything quickly and transform the space to suit any kind of event the crew has planned. The other side of the building is living quarters, so combining the event space and the studio is really the only viable option. Not necessarily the most convenient solution, but so far, I have found that every time I had to move my sculptures and materials they have ended up back in the studio in a different way. As if every move was contributing to the process.

So far, there are only four of us working in the studio more or less consistently. I don’t want to crowd the space by having too many people, but we could do with a few more. Our model is still the same as it was supposed to be back in Cozy; we have a few people who have their own working stations in the studio and any one from the community who wants to do a project, build something or just needs a practice space can come in and if they need help or tools we will provide it. We have had a few people come in to do things, building carts and boxes but I think we need to get the word out more now that we have got the space up and running smoothly.