Brief opening remarks from the curators, Urban
Subjects, and from Nicholas Blomley, author of
Unsettling the City: Urban Land and the Politics
of Property.

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

Not Sheep: New Urban Enclosures and Commons
gathers a varied set of examples and speculations
on new urban enclosures and commons from 50
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 contributors from cities as varied
as Gdansk, Berlin, 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 was emailed and later printed out
for exhibition, effectively pointing to digital
communication as another possibility for
enclosures and commons.

Marian Penner Bancroft (Vancouver), Judith Barry
(New York), Jochen Becker (Berlin) Ron Benner
(London, Ont.), Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam),
Nicholas Blomley (Greater Vancouver), Claudia
Bosse (Vienna), Class of Post-Conceptual (Art)
Practices/Academy of fine Arts (Kevin Dooley,
Katharina Morawek, Lilo Nein, Stefan Pederson,
Michael Pötschko, Josef Steinkogler, Vienna),
Clint Burnham (Vancouver), Mariana Celac + Iosif
Kiraly (Bucharest), Vitor Cesar (Sao Paulo /
Vienna), Steve Collis (Greater Vancouver), Oliver
Croy (Berlin), Calin Dan (Bucharest / Rotterdam),
Doménec (Barcelona), Roger Farr (Greater
Vancouver), Marina Grzinic (Ljubljana / Vienna),
Mona Hahn (Vienna), Jamelie Hassan (London,
Ont.), Antonia Hirsch (Berlin / Vancouver),
Ashley Hunt (Los Angeles), Fiona Jeffries
(Vancouver), Susan Kelly + Stephen Morton
(London, UK), Klub Zwei (Simone Bader / Jo
Schmeiser, Vienna), Martin Krenn (Vienna), Lin +
Lam (New York), Ralo Mayer (Vienna), Vlad Nanca
(Bucharest), Mark Nowak (Minneapolis / St.Paul),
PAUHOF (Michael Hofstätter / Wolfgang
Pauzenberger, Linz, Vienna), Lisl Ponger + Tim
Sharp (Vienna), Elspeth Pratt (Vancouver),
Geraldine Pratt (Vancouver), Oliver Ressler
(Vienna), Stefan Römer (Munich / Berlin), Klaus
Ronneberger + Georg Schöllhammer (Frankfurt /
Vienna), Jayce Salloum (Vancouver), Birgit
Schlieps (Berlin), Gregory Sholette (New York),
Neil Smith (New York), Sophie Thorsen (Copenhagen
/ Vienna), Transição Listrada (Sao Paulo), Aaron
Vidaver (Vancouver), Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss (New
York / Belgrade), Agnieszka Wolodzko (Gdansk),
Michael Zinganel (Vienna).

-- 
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