emplacements was an artist-led, cross-cultural collaborative project initiated in 1997 by Françoise Dupré and myself. The project involved artists and writers from the UK, Western Europe and Russia who work in response to their experience of the history, environment, architecture and community connected to the location of their events. From 2001 to 2003 the Komitet for the Preservation and Use of Monuments of History and Culture (GIOP), worked with us to identify significant sites of industrial architecture to act as the subject and location of each event, aiming to raise issues integral to current debates around the protection of historical industrial buildings. In 2000 the emplacements project enabled access to the historic site of New Holland for the only time in 300 years and earned a mention in the Rough Guide.
There were two exhibitions in London and workshops, exhibitions and events in St Petersburg over four years, culminating in 2003, the 300th anniversary of St Petersburg. We also had a web site, which unfortunately no longer exists. Artists Gail Pearce and Françoise Dupré have written about their experience of emplacements here and here.
Click on the photographs to find out more about each project.