18 September - 28 November 2010

SQUAT (Social Questioning Using Art Today) Liverpool is the umbrella title for the collaborative project between the New York-based group No Longer Empty (NLE), and the UK-based group The Art Organisation (TAO). 

SQUAT examined the issues of regeneration of empty commercial spaces by artistic communities. In Liverpool, SQUAT zoomed in on the Ropewalks and L1 area of Liverpool city centre. Both NLE and TAO share an interest in the creative use of empty spaces.

As economic certainties crumble around us, and the spaces we previously inhabited come into focus as the monument to or ruins of ‘better times’, how communities re-infiltrate or experiment with the spaces left following the commercial exodus could be the key to how we move forward.

Through various exhibitions, events, performances and interventions which took place at spaces generously donated by local landlords, SQUAT breathed new life into forgotten buildings as residual and collective memory, new artistic experimentation and urban exploration and discovery collide.

No Longer Empty

No Longer Empty was co-founded by Asher Remy-Toledo in New York, in response to the current economic crisis. The group’s mission is to introduce art to a wider public by temporarily transforming vacant spaces, presenting new models of collaboration between artists, curators, museums, grassroots organisations and landlords who provide the spaces free rent. Using limited resources, but without compromising on quality, NLE manages to shift the paradigm of how art is experienced, and, ultimately, whom it is for. Liverpool marked the premiere of No Longer Empty on the Road  before continuing on to other locations. 

The Art Organisation (TAO)

Property Solutions TAO, founded and run by Robert Howie Smith and Greg Scott-Gurner, has been active for the last ten years in helping to establish spaces and opportunities for artists and creative communities in Liverpool and across the UK by enabling the legal occupation of disused spaces.

TAO Property Solutions, based on Slater Street, launched in March 2010 and is the new branch of TAO established to take on the specific role of brokering this interaction. It enables a clear and confidential point of contact between owners and future tenants, maintaining portfolios of available spaces and potential projects.

For the full SQUAT Liverpool 2010 programme visit the website www.squatliverpool.com

The No Longer Empty (NLE) on the Road  Liverpool Biennial exhibition was curated and produced by Asher Remy-Toledo.

TAO is founded and run by Robert Howie Smith and Greg Scott-Gurner.