In the Wake of Assemble<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The 2015 Turner Prize entry by the collective Assemble caused a lot of ink to flow, particularly due to the nature of the collective\u2019s work, which is more in dialogue with architecture and community action than with visual art. The fact that Assemble then won this prestigious British prize for visual art\u200a\u2014\u200aawarded to a collective for the first time\u200a\u2014\u200ademonstrated an unprecedented opening to a radically interdisciplinary form in the field of contemporary art. Defining itself as a multidisciplinary collective working across architecture, design, and art, Assemble was founded in 2010. The approximately twenty members who make up the collective\u200a\u2014\u200awith specializations in fields as diverse as philosophy, history, and English\u200a\u2014\u200ahave a collaborative working method based on democratic, community-based, and participatory principles. The project for which they won the Turner Prize, Granby Four Streets<\/em>, fully reflects the heterogeneous nature of both their practice and their structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Begun in 2012 in collaboration with a group of residents already involved in revitalizing the Granby neighbourhood of Liverpool\u200a\u2014\u200aa once-thriving multicultural area that had suffered for decades from ineffective community and urban-regeneration projects\u200a\u2014\u200aGranby Four Streets<\/em> builds on the cumulative power of small-scale creative initiatives, as well as on larger actions. It was within the perimeter of four streets\u200a\u2014\u200ain which the Victorian architectural heritage has survived destruction\u200a\u2014\u200athat Assemble\u2019s skills were put to good use. In line with the civic will to take over and restore rundown housing, the collective renovated ten abandoned houses and created new spaces, thus helping to change the community\u2019s relationship with the land by demonstrating the tangible impact of collect-
ive action in a context in which the speculative real-estate market greatly influences urban transformation. It is also important to note that Assemble\u2019s actions, which include employment initiatives,^{2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 2 <\/a> - This is the case for the Granby Workshop project, launched as part of the Turner Prize 2015 exhibition in the form of a showroom featuring homeware made in collaboration with local artists and craftspeople. The social enterprise specializing in ceramics has gained momentum and is still active today, continuing to have local impact.<\/span> eschew a paternalistic vision of community action by which its members would, in a sense, be parachuted into the local community in order to act as \u201csaviours\u201d in response to gentrification and its many adverse effects on the urban fabric. Assemble\u2019s interventions are based fundamentally on the act of listening to the citizens affected.^{3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>} 3 <\/a> - Amy Melia, \u201cUrban Gentrification and \u2018Non-Artist\u2019 Agency: Towards a Working-Class Turn in Anti-Gentrification Art Projects,\u201d Nuart Journal <\/em>2, no. 2 (2020): 30, accessible online.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though architecture may be dominant in the projects and profiles of its members, Assemble allows us to observe an intriguing conceptual turn. The group\u2019s Turner Prize nomination has contributed not only to rethinking the notion of collectives in visual art, but also to redefining the architect\u2019s role and, more broadly, the functions of architecture. The ontological crossover between the designations of artist and architect, and even among discipline labels, itself attests to the interdisciplinary momentum now underway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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