MIDDAY - MIDNIGHT
20 - 23 APRIL 2011
For more info and venue location:
WWW.RANDOMARTISTS.ORG

TAA has long been a vehicle to imagine social change for the better. Whilst the environment we face today presents a stiff challenge, we should rise to the occasion, and expand the scope of our ethical and social aspirations. Bring it on!

Many in our audience may not have been exposed to extended periods of social upheaval, swinging financial cuts and stark social inequalities as experienced in the 1970s and 1980s. Nor will they have been accustomed to making a stand for rights, social alternatives, equality, our environment, personal liberties and creative freedom.

Therefore it is important that wae should encourage debate, nurture experimentation and enable those with enthusiasm to facilitate the exchange of creative, social, ethical and political information and skills., and to respond to a new environment of politics, media, funding, space, and social conflict.
As a group we have stood together in adversity and proven repeatedly that we can achieve stunning results, mount fantastic shows, and collaborate to produce more than we expected. As a team, we have a wealth of experience in logistics, organising, curating, emboldening and daring to dream. I believe we should attempt to look beyond those resources which we have in London to the wider UK network, networks of networks, like minded overseas groups, and the wider world, to achieve more. To invite skills and thoughts from professionals, who will provide new challenges to rise to, to move on and upwards, sharing tasks and learning.

We have the opportunity at this moment of change to look back upon our history and move ahead, where we harness goodwill and experience to create a lasting legacy we are proud of. Where we make a difference.
TAA

Temporary Autonomous Art Events and Exhibitions were born in London in 2001 to the Random Artists collective. Taking influence from Temporary Autonomous Zones that believe in building fleeting pirate utopia's, TAA utilises DIY culture tactics to create space for art and expression outside of the establish artworld elites. Reclaiming and reusing derelict urban spaces TAAs host a hotbed of emerging arts crossing all disciplines, fusing and collaborating between traditional and contemporary media. The artwork is diverse and uncurated, but the combined effect is one of hope and beauty, unified through the use of free space.

TAA NEEDS YOU

 My first TAA came as somewhat of a suprise to me, some of my raving mates said they were taking part in an underground art thing in a pub near Smithfields and asked if I fancied showing up and lending a hand, so I did. I showed up and found the pub a bustle of activity, someone pointed me to a darkish cellar, where my mates weren't, so I wondered back to the door and got chatting with the chap who was collecting donations from the viewing public. It turned out he had better things to do and so within minutes of getting there I was in charge of the door, and the donations tin. 

At first, using my societally trained brain patterns this seemed insane, why would you trust some bloke you hardly knew with such responsibility based purely on him saying he knew some crew of ravers? But in the horizontally organised world I was entering, what mattered was who was up for doing what and the fact that I volunteered was enough. 

I've been to lots more TAA since then, and the best ones are always like that first one, a mad chaos of frenetic activity in a random building, for a week.  A mix and blend of peeople who get on by cooperation and discussion (sometimes quite heated) rather than through structure and hierarchy. Noone tells anyone what to do, but there's plenty to be done, and most often enough willing hands to do it. 

As the TAAs became more regular in London the Random Artists weren't quite so random any more, they knew each other, and had formed into groups, structure was appearing from the choas. Whilst I'd hesitate to say that this was per se bad it did seem to mean people slipped back into more hierarchical modes of behaviour, waiting to be told what to do, rather than seeing what needed to be done and just doing it. 

Fortunately people in the group realised that this was happening and two things happened, one was the creation of collectives who wished to do more structured and curated art exhibitions and the other was the exporting of the TAA concept to other cities. Both these strategies seemed to work, but the former was a step away from the TAA. The latter tho worked wonders, the TAAs that then took place round the country were full of that productive chaos. 

The art produced and shown at TAAs may be better or worse than other art, I'm sure an infinite number of critics will be along to debate it shortly, but the excellent thing about a TAA is the feeling of freedom it engenders in the participants. Whilst you may have a good experience if you go to a TAA, you sure to have a lifechanging experience if you help run one.

30-31.05.09

F.R.E.A.K / TAA

A mini FREAK event over the course of a weekend. A free and autonomous arts space for artists and non-artists alike to come together.

11am – 6pm, Arts Complex, St Margarets House, Meadowbank, Edinburgh, EH8 7TG
www.myspace.com/freaktaaedinburgh

MORE INFO ON THE EDINBURGH PAGE

Temporary Autonomous Art Events and Exhibitions were born in London in 2001 to the Random Artists collective. Taking influence from Temporary Autonomous Zones that believe in building fleeting pirate utopia's, TAA utilises DIY culture tactics to create space for art and expression outside of the establish artworld elites.  Reclaiming and reusing derelict urban spaces TAAs host a hotbed of emerging arts crossing all disciplines, fusing and collaborating between traditional and contemporary media. The artwork has a dark and ominous undertone, whilst sharing a hope and beauty unified through the use of free space.

After several years of building successful and growing networks of artists and audience in London, the Random Artists collective began to tour TAA exhibitions to Eastern Europe. Over the years we have been to Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Berlin, Italy, France and Spain.

In 2004 Random Artists helped the Insurgent Arts collective to facilitate a TAA in Bristol, it exploded and they began their own regular events. Since then Manchester (Forbidden Arts), Edinburgh (Free & Reactive Edinburgh Arts Kollective - FREAK) and Brighton (Subterranean Art) have bloomed their own arts collectives and have held successful TAA events. The TAA network is a growing family and new groups are always welcomed.

Random Artists and a host of other TAA participant collectives have also worked together on Ground Zero – an electronic arts show at the 2004 Liverpool Biennalle, Fuse - a multidisciplinary collaboration and The Plot Thickens I and II – two exhibitions based on a short story, as well as presenting a short archive of work at the ICA.

The united UK TAA network is hoping to work together for the first time in 2009 to create the Temporary Autonomous Festival, an extension of the indoor events, creating a gallery of truly public ownership.