‘No arts space acting alone can respond to the diverse and conflicting needs, interests and access requirements of all its stakeholders; no insular effort will suffice to critically embrace future technologies… Instead we offer a toolkit of architectural and political strategies for knitting arts spaces into a tapestry of creative debate, out of which a new and more sustainable global society might one day rise.’ — Art Spaces Lead Global Ecology of Ideas, Hunter&Gatherer (with Yiannis Kanakakis)

Auto Italia is pleased to announce Towards a Zoology of Spaces, a staged conversation and open debate by Hunter&Gatherer (architect Manuel Shvartzberg and writer Fabian Faltin) with the participation of James Taylor Gallery co-founders Julia Crabtree and Will Evans, Edward Dorrian of Five Years, and SPCMKR founder Timothy Ivison.

Hunter&Gatherer’s Art Spaces Lead Global Ecology of Ideas reported on a near-future art world constellation of institutional typologies ranging from MOMA franchise expansion in London Heathrow airport to ‘grey’ art centres which deliver day-care services and gated security for the elderly. Organised as a pragmatic response to their original report, Towards a Zoology of Spaces aims to provoke debate amongst self-organised arts spaces operating in contemporary contexts, and to sound out propositions for future methodologies and organisational structures. Hunter&Gatherer rehearse a staged conversation based on research conducted at Auto Italia and with members of the panel, which will be followed by an open discussion.

Hunter&Gatherer is a democratic, two-way collaboration between ‘Architecture Director’ Manuel Shvartzberg and ‘Intellectual Superintendent’ Fabian Faltin, founded in 2008. James Taylor Gallery, a 10,000-square-foot warehouse gallery in Hackney.  JT Project 09 recently saw the simultaneous participation of seven artist-run organisations, each independently organising a space within the space. Five Years, thirteen artist-members who manage the gallery according to the principle that each member may present two exhibitions every eighteen months, with at least one exhibition by invitation only. SPCMKR, an international exchange network of ‘surplus spaces’ made possible through an online community of artists, curators and writers.