!WOWOW!
3 July 2006
The Architecture Foundation presented a !WOWOW! event at The Yard as part of the 'Renegade City' season, in collaboration with SHOWstudio. On Monday 3 July, !WOWOW! hosted a party and performances, turning the gallery into a renegade art space. The preparation (from midday), and party (6 - 9.30pm) was broadcast live on www.showstudio.com
As an art collective encompassing artists, fashion designers, writers and musicians, !WOWOW! has hosted numerous art events in large, disused buildings. These have ranged from ambitious group exhibitions to notorious parties in London and Berlin.
The spaces created by !WOWOW! allow for creative freedom, encouraging artists to present their work without pre-determined definitions. In 2005 !WOWOW! commandeered an enormous disused department store in Peckham. A building that once played host to a parade of shops, a two-thousand capacity nightclub, a gym and an African evangelical church, became the home for a series of !WOWOW! events. Men's locker-rooms became bedrooms, the old tile-warehouse a gallery, the gym was utilised as studio-space and living quarters and the once happy-hardcore-mecca nightclub "The Lazerdrome" was restored to it's original use.
Remaining intentionally ambigious and essentially undefined as an entity; !WOWOW! has been able to maintain it's status as a playful, creative and non-commercial arena for it's members to utilise as, when and however they fancy. Whilst collaboration has naturally been key to !WOWOW!'s success, an emphasis has always been placed on the importance of individual creative identities.