After a few weeks, somehow the drabness of the building settled on the people. This was not a good time for us, so we took some time to figure out how we look after one another and how does the crew function as a community. This lead to some restructuring and part of our crew ended up merging with the bigger group, myself and Tape Modern included.
We took a new building with our new crew and it is perfect for us! We could do with more space since there are so many of us, but it’s in a fairly good condition and we still have a lot of communal and workshop space. The building used to be a radio station and a club. Our studio is in the loading bay bar, take a look:

It is an excellent space! That’s the long-story-short version of how we ended up in this building with a different crew and what our new place is like, now to Art News!

We have a new van! It is a beautiful (in all honesty it’s a bit battered second hand, but it is what we need), 2012 long wheel base Ford Transit. I am currently making a conversion plan to transform it into a “mobile studio gear and temporary accommodation”- solution. Unfortunately I can’t start the building itself in this space, we can’t drive vans in, but the next building will be chosen with that in mind.
It’s not only the conversion we can’t do right now. We can’t really facilitate an exhibition in this building either, so unfortunately the next show will be pushed to next year.

It’s not just because of the building; enne&moffa has been very busy with happenings/performance and it has definitely taken a toll on Tape Modern’s exhibition program. But it seems there is a time and a place for everything.
We have had a fantastic autumn with showing work and we are looking forward to enne&moffa’s upcoming performances, like the Dhaka Live Art Biennale. (If you want to know more about the work of enne&moffa, the dyad behind Tape Modern, take a look at what we’ve been up to while the gallery has been downshifting: enne&moffa

Even though we didn’t do an autumn show, the gallery hasn’t been in complete silence! We had the pleasure to be part of peace of video art by Finnish artist Aimo Hyvärinen. Him and his team are making a video installation and then possibly a documentary about artists working in peculiar conditions and the storage, moving and handling of works of art. We had a lovely day at the studio with David Malcolm Chapman and one of his students Gui who came to film us in the current studio. Since we had just moved into our new building there was not all that much to show in terms of finished work, but since we were in the process of some inventory it turned out to be a good time for their shoot. We had a lovely time chatting about the conditions of other artists and art world professionals they had interviewed while making this work, shared past experiences, talked about lost work, funny mishaps in evictions and other squat stories. Enne&moffa and Tape Modern thank everyone involved and thank Aimo for having us to be part of the peace. We are very much looking forward to seeing the installation in Helsinki in the autumn 2019. We’ll keep you all posted on that.

On a more personal note, there has also been a major change in my life, which was letting go of my flat. I have been working and part-time living in occupied properties since June, but since I had mandatory time left on my contract I had to keep my flat till last month. It feels very different living here without having my apartment, but I don’t feel homeless. This is good.

From the midst of all this flux, I apologize for not delivering the autumn show we promised but not to worry; there will be a next show and it will be a good one! We have loads of plans with Tape Modern and we’ll let you in on them as soon as the time is right. Till the end of the year though, there won’t be much to report. I’ll try to coax a guest article from Sophia for the next entry. Maybe she can give a little inside scoop of what’s been going on with the happenings and what was up with all that jam. If this tickled your curiosity, stay tuned.

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.