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It feels strange moving into the 16th year of a festival that began with nothing more than a €1000 grant from the local council and an idea to create a platform for art beyond the traditional gallery system. In the year 2000, I was part of a small group of radical artists who had occupied a vast, abandoned brewery in Stavanger. Our goal was to establish an independent contemporary arts space.
The founding group included contemporary composer Nils Henrik Asheim, the young architectural firm Helen & Hard, fledgling urbanist Kristin Gustavsen, new media artist Randy Naylor, and a motley crew of experimental electronic musicians, DJs, performers, and outsiders seeking a home. Our endeavor was nearly anarchistic, set in one of the wealthiest cities in one of the richest countries in the Western Hemisphere at the time.
I had been in Norway for almost five years after moving in 1996 with just the clothes on my back and a few boxes of 12” vinyl. In London, I had been organizing small underground house nights while studying Fine Art at North London’s Hornsey College of Art, a school integrated into Middlesex University after a student riot and occupation in 1968—events partly inspired by the Paris uprisings and protests against the state of arts education. This spirit of rebellion resurfaced in 1991 when we occupied the building until riot police forcefully evicted us days later.
A radical DIY attitude, influenced by underground club culture and Damien Hirst’s 'Freeze' show, was sweeping through London. Diverse groups, from casuals to art graduates, graffiti writers to emerging DJs, converged at the Bass Clef, a disheveled basement club in Hoxton Square—a rather dark and dangerous area at the time. Bought by Acid Jazz’s Eddie Pillar, it was transformed into the legendary Blue Note. This club, along with annual art events in the square, inadvertently sparked one of the most successful gentrification projects in London's history.
The DIY contemporary art scene exploded with pop-up shows and events, notably Joshua Compton’s gallery "Factual Nonsense". Compton, in his early twenties, championed a new breed of artists including Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Mat Collishaw, Gary Hume, and Damien Hirst. His debut art party in the park, "A Fete Worse than Death," is part of contemporary art folklore and continues in his honor today. (Compton tragically committed suicide in 1996).
During the Fete, artist Leigh Bowery staged a fake birth to a dwarf live on stage, while Tracey Emin installed a “Kissing Tent”. Months earlier, friends and I, clad in camo outfits, broke into the building that hosted the "Freeze" show. We "liberated" a large Hirst canvas intending to auction it for charity but were declined. It stayed in our apartment until our landlady mistook it for old linoleum and threw it out. We found it quite amusing.
During this period, Goldie, a graffiti writer turned drum and bass producer/DJ, was running the renowned Metalheadz club night. Cheap industrial units became artist studios, rave spots, clubs, and bars. It wasn’t uncommon to find both art and music stars mingling on the dancefloor. It was an era of vibrant discovery.
Inspired by Marxian critical theorists and political activists like Baudrillard and Deleuze & Guattari, I established a monthly event at the Institute of Contemporary Art, merging art and experimental music. We handed out Fluxus-like multiples at each event and encouraged alternative perceptions of art, likely helped by the fact that many attendees were on ecstasy.
With friends, we formed the art group "Phased". In 1995, a promoter in Stavanger invited us to use the city as our canvas. After an immensely successful week-long residency, the rest of Phased returned to London, while I stayed behind, realizing it was a new chapter in my life. I was 27.
Various clubs, gallery projects, exhibitions, and DJ residencies followed, all greatly influenced by my past experiences. The Numusic Festival was established in 2000 and Nuart followed in 2001. The rest, as they say, is history.
