‘Lean’, an open call and a workshop, exploring interdependence as a means of survival, nurture, tactic, friendship, independence, confidence, utilising the density of collectives and artist-run spaces that exist or existed in London.

Through an open call, PACTO will ask collectives/artist-run spaces to submit lists or maps of their own ‘interdependent networks’ in order to accumulate a large map and see how they overlap. This will launch PACTO collective’s new body of research, mapping out networks of interdependence seen in London-based artist collectives/spaces since 1988 (The birth of the YBA’s). 

PACTO will host a workshop at Common House in Bethnal Green followed by an informal meet-up in a local pub, a chance for artist groups to come together and discuss their relationships and networks. The workshop will be a mapping workshop specifically aimed at exploring interdependence in the form of diagrams and illustrations, understanding how to visualise such an extensive amount of data. PACTO will invite the participants to present their maps or lists of their networks of artist groups and spaces in London, to then find connections between each map, as well as discussing these links and how they work. 

The following informal conversation at the pub will aim to break down what consequences these networks have and allow PACTO to test an idea of a bi-monthly pub night also titled “Lean”.  This will exist as an “artists daycare centre” for people in the creative sector to come together informally to talk about work, projects and collaborations and to find/offer support.  

PACTO is a trans-national alliance of artists, researchers and writers, gathered to explore collective work as an alternative to individualised practice. PACTO are actively anti-hierarchical, intersectional and decentralised. Rather than being led by structure, PACTO seeks to explore what forms working together and how that translates into practice-led processes. 

PACTO came together through a MilesKm research project initiated in August 2017 and became a collective in July 2018. Currently, PACTO members live and work in Athens, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Leiden, London, Milan, New York and Porto. PACTO projects and working practice includes workshops, publications, exhibitions, residencies and participatory discussions in organisations such as A-Dash (Athens) Raven Row (London), CAS (Croydon) and Macao (Milan).