The Salford Restoration Office

Between Tracks was an exhibition of new work by twenty-seven artists, developed in collaboration with the artist collective, NEXTEX, as the second part of their Pressure Points exchange programme. The project aimed to encourage discussion between artists who are based outside their respective country’s primary art centres, taking place in St.Gallen, Switzerland and Salford/Manchester, UK.

In May 2009, twelve Manchester-based artists exhibited alongside six Swiss artists in St.Gallen’s disused badhaus, a remarkable nineteenth century building located next to the railway line running out of the town’s main station. In its heyday, the badhaus provided rail personel, locomotive drivers and conductors with the possibility of a bath and overnight accommodation. Long since abandoned, the building found a new role as the temporary host to a travelling contingent of cultural workers, hoping to open up a dialogue with their local counterparts. Six weeks later, a further delegation of five St.Gallen-based artists exhibited alongside four British artists, who had been invited from various regional centres around the UK, in The International 3 and The Salford Restoration Office’s premises, which, for its final weeks of use, had been converted into a gallery space. The exhibitions were further complimented by a screening programme, Free Trade, which focussed on performative and narrative based work.

Between Tracks in St.Gallen contained work by Louise Adkins, Simon Blackmore, Andrew Bracey, Hayley Drayton, Stuart Edmundson, Evi Grigoropoulou, Naomi Kashiwagi, Mirjam Kradolfer, Laurence Lane, Tim Machin, Vera Marke, Paul Needham, Elisabeth Nembrini, Sarah Sanders, Harlis Schweizer, Matt Wand, and Herbert Weber.

Between Tracks in Salford/Manchester contained work by Andrea Giuseppe Corciulo, Dave Griffiths, Candice Jacobs, Aurelio Kopainig, Alexandra Maurer, Haroon Mirza, David Sherry, Aleksandra Signer and Andrea Vogel.

Free Trade contained work by Karin Bühler, Nick Crowe, Katie Davies, Rahel Ilona Eisenring, Tim Etchells & Hugo Glendinning, Erica Eyres, Rolf Fleischmann, Edith Fluckiger, Susanne Hofer, Nikolaj Bendix Skyum Larsen, Rebecca Lennon, Rachel Lumsden, Elisabeth Nembrini, Arno Oehri, Alex Pearl, Stefan Rohner, David Sherry, Hildegard Spielhofer, Olga Titus and Andrea Vogel.