The DA! collective is an art collective that squats in

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, co-founded by Simon and Bogna McAndrew, Stephanie Smith, Samuel Conrad, Julika Vaci, Aishlinn Dowling, Sam Padfield and Murat Bulut Aysan. After

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

in three buildings, they received national attention when they squatted a

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of Terraced house, terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type o ...

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

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in October 2008. The property, at 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, is a 30-room

grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

-listed 1730s mansion worth an estimated £6.25 million owned by the billionaire

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, Britain's wealthiest private landlord.

Formation and First Three Spaces

Simon McAndrew (b. 1979), a hairdresser, co-founded DA! after squatting at Chez Robert in

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. In 2005, he and partner Bogna McAndrew formed "a London equivalent of Chez Robert" in a six-story home on Kensington High Street. The collective has been self described as "a mix of visual, performance and conceptual artists, writers, musicians, thinkers, art students, students of other disciplines." McAndrew and Bogna lived in the home for a year, and attracted new members such as Stephanie Smith. DA! continued to use spots at Knightsbridge and Tottenham Court Road before finding the spot at Grosvenor Street.

Grosvenor Street Squatting and Media Attention

The group had been observing the home for six months, putting tape on the keyhole to see if it was in use and checking the letterbox. One October 2010 night, several members wore high-visibility jackets (such as a construction worker) and climbed to an unlocked window. The members held a 24-hour occupancy in keeping with

Land Registration Act 2002 The Land Registration Act 2002 (c. 9) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which repealed and replaced previous legislation governing land registration, in particular the Land Registration Act 1925, which governed an earlier, though ...

, which states that squatters must occupy for ten years before applying for ownership - at the time, squatting in a residential property was still a civil offense. McAndrew referred to this space as MADA!, combining "MA" from Mayfair with DA!. In a statement delivered from the balcony (bedecked with a blacked-out tattered

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), Stephanie Smith declared: Two art shows were put on in MADA! on 8 November and 21 November. Visual installations, music, and performance art were among the projects displayed in the home. By the end of November 2010, DA! was given an eviction notice by lease owners Deltaland Resources Ltd. and left Grosvenor Street.

After Grosvenor

"The Temporary School of Thought"

Immediately after being evicted, DA! occupied a £22.5m property nearby in Clarges Mews. This project was titled "The Temporary School of Thought", and featured free and open group activities such as

deschooling Deschooling is a term invented by Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich. The word is mainly used by homeschoolers, especially unschoolers, to refer to the transition process that children and parents go through when they leave the school system in ord ...

sessions, labyrinth-building and French

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. They remained undetected until the lease owners, Timekeeper Ltd., noticed a Christmas tree in the window. In mid-December 2010, they were evicted from this property.

m@ke-u.se

In 2011, McAndrew started a project called InEmptyBuildings - later named ma.ke-u.se (stylized as m@ke-u.se) which aimed to "enable artists, to support and stimulate each other; by using vacant commercial buildings in central London, at very low cost, on a short term basis." Later, as the

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (c. 10) (LASPO) is a statute of the Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted by the Cameron–Clegg coalition, coalition government of 2010-2015, creating reforms to the justice syst ...

implemented harsher offenses for squatting, the project shifted to creating a "practical, media savvy, pro-squatting campaign to reverse the direction in which the law is currently heading". m@ke-u.se has not been updated since March 2014.

Possible Resurrection

After lying dormant with no projects for three years, the DA! Facebook page hinted in December 2013 "Is 2014 the year DA! returns?" The Facebook page has remained active.

References

{{SquatE&W Culture in London British artist groups and collectives People from Mayfair 20th-century squatters Squatting in the United Kingdom