Rant 1: Arty Gang Squat in Luxury

Nice. The DA! Collective seem pro-active and forward-thinking. I hope they don't start a DA! Academy and gym though.

Seems like a publicity stunt.

How can you call squatting a building art? Or perhaps more importantly, why make the claim? What does DA stand for? Is it another form of Dadaism? There are so many people just appropriating things or ideas these days and calling that art I think that building a house or a commune with your own bare hands from the ground up and adding cool design elements to it might qualify as art-you're really manipulating the environmment, creating something new and taking control of your destiny, but appropriating a mansion is just petty...well squatting. perhaps what DA is doing is a pragmatic and logical solution to the economic crisis rearing its head on resource-deficient, populous urban center in Atlantic countries where there also happen to be alot of overpriced spaces.

I don't know that they are calling the squatting itself 'art', only that they are using the mansion's lofty spaces to make work collaboratively... And yes, there are so many overpriced spaces in London's rich centre. Squatters' laws are an incredible piece of legislation - if there are unused spaces, why not exploit them? Here's a video I found on Youtube, apparently of one of DA!'s performances

Hmmm is this collective a seriously proletarian group of working class artists who are genuinely skint and trying to develop their art in a hostile economic climate or is this just another bunch of rancid trustafarian thickos poncing about because they can't get real jobs and they want to embarrass their rich parents? If the former good on you, if the latter, how about leaving the country in a leaking boat?

Phwooooaaar that's got some venom to it. Made me laugh, but I don't think we can see it as black and white as that. You've raised the myth that artists, in order to be 'serious' and 'credible' should be genuinely skint... starving in a garret and the rest. Is an economic struggle part of making good work? Isn't this just a romantic idea conjured up after 'great' artists unrecognised in their lifetime have croaked? I believe that the group in question leans more towards your second economic description. Would it be fair to say that art college has a bias towards those with parental funding, simply because fine art isn't (seen to be) a profitable career option?

Look up ABC NoRio, on rivington street in NYC. They are a landmark in this discussion. the building itself teems with art work a document of the artists movement in the east village lower eastside. The building indeed is a collaborative art work. Is DA collective achieving this as they squat ?

www.abcnorio.org/about/about.html. We'd have to go and have a look to know how DA are using the building inside. It seems inconsequential whether the building itself is called an art work, what's the difference? The studio is an art work, inside your bag is an art work; they've all been touched by an artist, wow. ABC NoRio look well established and integrated into the community. I don't see DA's expensive tastes being able to hold up for too long though.

well they do have a knack for gaining publicity. Recalling their Tottenham Crt Rd efforts, although there was some decent work contributed, all in all their exhibition wasn't great, nice party though. Class or financial background, perhaps shouldn't be relevant to discussion, but is, because as soon as you begin to publicise yourselves as squatters legal cost ensue and of course they do all have 'real homes' to retreat back to as sanctuary from the cold etc... You have to give them credit for their activities, but if the work itself does not hold up it does seem more of a gimmick than anything else credible or revolutionary. I think some artists will always be annoyed at others who manage to manipulate the media more successfully, but you have to ask yourself where is the real story here?