Auto Italia is an artist-run project and studio in Bethnal Green, London, England. It commissions and produces new artwork, collaborating directly with emerging artists. Throughout its history, Auto Italia’s work has taken many forms, ranging from collaborative public programming in temporary spaces, commissions and presentations in institutions and galleries, and the production of collaborative projects through working online. This work has been shown nationally and internationally at Tate Modern and Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; KW Institute for Contemporary Art and abc – art berlin contemporary in Berlin; Artissima LIDO in Turin; Hessel Museum in New York; Künstlerhaus Bremen and Firstdraft in Sydney amongst others.
Auto Italia
Auto Italia was founded by artists Kate Cooper, Amanda Dennis and Rachel Pimm in a squatted car garage named ‘auto-italia south east’ in Peckham, South London. Throughout the history of the organisation, Auto Italia’s programming has questioned how artists can work together to develop new formats for artistic production. This has been explored under a number of guises, with artists at the heart of the organisation exploring the project as an artist, an organisation, a collaboration, a community and a space. This has been developed by an evolving group of collaborating artists. Alumni include Marleen Boschen, Amanda Dennis, Richard John Jones and Rachel Pimm. This work has been developed through a series of temporary spaces in Peckham, Kings Cross and its current space in Bethnal Green. Since 2012, Auto Italia's has been one of Arts Council England's National Portfolio Organisations.
Auto Italia LIVE
In 2010 Auto Italia LIVE was launched in collaboration with LuckyPDF with five, one hour long TV episodes performed and broadcast live over the internet and to a studio audience. In September 2011 Auto Italia began a second series of TV shows again performed in front of a live audience and broadcast live online from the space. This series focuses on how television affects expectations and perceptions of culture and public spaces. Artists have been commissioned to produce new work for the shows including soap operas, factual programmes, documentary works, and human and mechanical choreography. Participating artists include Nathan Budzinski, Benedict Drew, Francisco Pedraglio, Heather Phillipson, Eddie Peake, Andrew Kerton, Leslie Kulesh, Rachel Pimm, and Lorenzo Tebano.
Yes Way!
In 2009 and again in 2010 Auto Italia collaborated with the music promoter and record label collective Upset The Rhythm to curate a weekend festival called Yes Way! The festival brought together artists such as Darren Banks, Justin Jaeckle, Ruth Angel Edwards, and Katie Guggenheim and musicians such Male Bonding, Roseanne Barr, Lovvers and Graffiti Island. A pamphlet featuring works of the invited artists featured in Yes Way 2010 was published to accompany the festival.
Il Trasloco
is an independent documentary from 1991, which tells the story of the Autonomia movement that began in Italy in the 1960s. Documenting the emptying of the unofficial headquarters of the movement, and narrated by one of its key proponents, Franco Berardi. The translation and subtitling of this film is by Federico Campagna and Richard John Jones and was commissioned by Auto Italia South East.
