DSLR was a weekend campaign of April 27, 28, and 29th, in 2001 that attempted to reclaim all the space, land and visual culture of Chicago back to the people who work for it, live in it and create it.

Reclamation projects, those that actively trespassed with the intent to resist, took place across the city and throughout the weekend. Whether they were spilling out of the sewers, taking the parks, invading the steps of City Hall, scrambling up trees or cramming the sidewalks, these projects actively engaged everyday life. A huge array of measures were taken to infuse Chicago with the passion that a socially conscious movement demands.

The theme of this exhibition came out of discussions where we, a small collective of responsible citizens, recognized a pattern among a diverse range of art and activist practices. As the movement to resist capital and control grows to global proportions, artists/activists/radical citizens have once again found common ground. The umbrella term, reclamation, seems to encompass the wide array tactics in use. Whether this is through squatting, guerilla gardens, pirate radio, graffiti, hacking, billboard manipulation or performative public interventions, these practices all resist the encroachment of top down centralized control and private capital. Projects of reclamation situate the producer at a critical intersection of power. It is at this nexus that we intended to position the DSLR campaign. Important in this goal was the connecting of people with disparate practices and backgrounds. We hoped to reveal connections and energize people on the robust range of strategies that are possible.

Please have a look through the writings, documentation and ephemera from DSLR! If you were a participant, observer, or otherwise part of DSLR, please get in touch and help us to make this archive more complete. Thanks and enjoy!