Not Sheep at Artspeak

Not Sheep: New Urban Enclosures and Commons

May 13 - 20, 2006

Opening Friday, May 12, 8pm

Not Sheep: New Urban Enclosures and Commons gathers a varied set of
examples and speculations on new urban enclosures and commons from more
than 30 international artists, writers, architects and theorists. The
title of the project takes its name from the wooly emblem of the
historical enclosure of common land that began in 16th century England
as peasants were driven from arable farming land to make room for
sheep-walks. But rather than being a mythical moment in capitalism, the
enclosing of commons is a process that is in full force today, and
visible in the changing shape of cities globally.



Not Sheep looks at the ways that city territories are becoming
increasingly closed off and common goods and spaces enclosed,
privatized or gated off. From the privatization of Dresden's public
housing stock to pay the city's debts, the eviction of community
gardeners to make warehouse space in Los Angeles, to more subtle shifts
in the production of public space, the process of enclosure is a
strategy that is remaking urban experience today. Yet examples of
"commoning", the making of common spaces and resources, are also
visible: Caracas turning urban brown space into sites of urban
agriculture, squatting actions such as Woodsquat in Vancouver and the
Pope Squat in Toronto challenging an ownership model that closes off
housing space, and the opening of wireless LAN systems such as Bristol
Wireless.



These intertwined processes of enclosing and commoning have been
investigated, initiated and intervened by artists from cities as varied
as Gdansk, Brussels, New York, Vancouver, Vienna, Bucharest, Sao Paulo
and Rotterdam. Not Sheep is a catalogue of urban projects and writing
that examines both new and old forms of urban enclosures and urban
commons. Each contribution to the project will be emailed and printed
out for exhibition, effectively pointing to digital communication as
another possibility for enclosures and commons.





Judith Barry, Jochen Becker, Ron Benner, Bik Van der Pol, Nicholas
Blomley, Claudia Bosse, Mariana Celac, Vitor Cesar, Steve Collis,
Oliver Croy, Calin Dan, Doménec, Marina Grzinic, Mona Hahn, Jamelie
Hassan, Antonia Hirsch, Ashley Hunt, Fiona Jeffries, Susan Kelly &
Stephen Morton, Iosef Kiraly, Klub Zwei (Simone Bader/Jo Schmeiser),
Martin Krenn, Lin + Lam, Ralo Mayer, Vlad Nanca, Mark Nowak, PAUHOF
(Michael Hofstätter/ Wolfgang Pauzenberger), Marian Penner-Bancroft,
Lisl Ponger, Elspeth Pratt, Geraldine Pratt, Oliver Ressler, Stefan
Römer, Klaus Ronneberger, Steve Rowell & Not A Cornfield, Jayce
Salloum, Birgit Schlieps, Tim Sharp, Gregory Sholette, Neil Smith,
Sophie Thorsen, Milica Topalovic, Transição Listrada, Aaron Vidaver,
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Agnieszka Wolodzko, Michael Zinganel and others

This project has been organized by United Subjects (US): Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, Helmut Weber

--

ARTSPEAK

233 Carrall Street

Vancouver British Columbia

Canada V6B 2J2



T (604) 688-0051

F (604) 685-1912

E artspeak@artspeak.ca

W http://www.artspeak.ca

H Tuesday to Saturday 12 to 5pm