Video Installation: Fabric -- the making of a modern super-club

Produced and Directed by Lawrence "Kid" Batchelor

At the start of the 21st century, dance faced a new challenge in order to ensure the essence of dance culture survives. The superclub (neologism) Fabric was designed to take dance musical entertainment into the millennium. Fabric is identified as the leading venue offering a level of service, facilities and quality not previously found in the music industry. Fabric is programmed creatively to provide an absorbing experience of sound, style and scene.

In an effort to demystify the nature of this revolution in the world of dance music, a documentary was planned to follow the progress of the work on the fabric over a number of months. This short film examines the nature of many of the current concerns about dance music culture and looks at the provisions made by fabric for revellers in an effort to create a clean environment.

How can fabric fulfill it's dreams? Through a series of interviews, the Inside Track answers this question as it charts the development of the impressive multipurpose venue. This short film follows three separate groups who have very distinct ideas about what the fabric should be. They reveal their individual expectations as the construction of fabric comes to an end. The first group, 'the owners' talk about their vision and how it has been informed, and we learn their hopes and ambitions.


Duration of the film and content, though variable, conforms roughly to the following projections. This is a fifty-minute film (made of three stand-alone parts).

* * * * * * * *

Fabric Japan launched November 2012
Fabric is thirteen years old. To celebrate, Fabric Japan is forged at an exceptional time.
Fabric Exhibition, 4 November~January end 2013, Diesel Store (Tokyo). 

fabric nightclub humbly presents "US"

To compliment their line up of genre defining dj talent, an exhibition featuring an archival history of graphic art (all the flyers), and this video installation (1999). 
'The work displayed is the product of an extensive and intensive process including photography, model making, and pure design. They constitute a personal and intimate reflection of all that we are. They mirror our passions our preferences and our hearts'. They are "US". They articulate who we are and the way that we feel. I've interviewed Keith Reilly many times before. Almost any question you ask, Keith's answer will likely be... music.
He is in Tokyo to launch his new exhibition, a departure for fabric which has hitherto confined itself to creating performance art and releasing music by the Dj glitterati.
In the corner, Reilly, the founder and the man behind both this new venture and original club, is all but invisible - a quiet, anonymous figure hovering on the edge of the crowd.
Fabric's exhibition of images from the last ten years and it's book has traveled from London to Tokyo and lands at the Diesel store from 15 November 2012 to February 2013.
The club is known for club performance, so this is "truly a first for us" Keith says.
With a deeply ingrained British suspicion of theory and intellectualism - how many club owners could even attempt to write a book? - Reilly has always been a somewhat mysterious figure in Britain. Perhaps the exhibition of this work at Diesel in Tokyo will do something to change that. Even better would be his involvement in a major project apart from clubs in this country.
 
One of the many ways in which fabric expresses itself is through imagery. It has always felt very natural for fabric to convey the complexion of this eclectic and abstract harvest through a visual medium. Language, whilst adequate for the purpose of conveying general information such as times, dates, location etc, can be quite limited when it is necessary to convey an emotive message. It is far easier to establish a shared identity and understanding through visuals. For all its pomposity our task as promoters is simply to find beautiful things and to show them to other people. In this context, words seem to become a primitive blunt instrument common to all to use or misuse, whilst imagery becomes a more subtle, discreet, and hidden domain within which to share ideals of artistic beauty.

It's a prescription that has resulted in an impressive body of work that has affected club culture profoundly. But as an antidote to an over-stimulated interest in the fashionable aspects of Dj culture, it's a prescription that has yet to be tone tested.
 
My dearest wish would be that you see some beauty in the works that Diesel has allowed us to bring to you.

Keith Reilly, fabric founder
Lawrence Batchelor, Creative

Fabric - the making of a modern superclub

_Un mini-documentario sul Fabric, uscito nel 2013._

"_Non si dovrebbero punire i locali. Se chiudono il Fabric dovrebbero chiudere praticamente tutti i club del paese." Ha perfettamente ragione: punire il Fabric non vuol dire risolvere i problemi che hanno causato queste due tragiche morti, ed è proprio per questo che salvarlo è invece una priorità. Chiuderlo significherebbe cancellare il clubbing, e per esteso la cultura giovanile, dalla vita della capitale_." Così Angus Harrison di THUMP UK, [**in un suo articolo**](http://noisey.vice.com/it/blog/fabric-chiusura) di settimana scorsa sulla possibilità che il [**Fabric**](https://www.facebook.com/fabriclondon/)&#x2014;storicissimo club londinese aperto nel 1999&#x2014;chiudesse effettivamente i battenti dopo che la revoca della licenza da parte del consiglio di Islington, a Londra, lo scorso 12 agosto. Il motivo, la morte di due ragazzi di diciotto anni per complicazioni legate a droghe che avevano preso.

Bé, gente: non abbiamo vinto. Ieri sera il consiglio comunale di Islington si è riunito assieme a rappresentanti del Fabric, della polizia metropolitana e della sanità britannica per discutere la cosa. La seduta è durata sei ore, ma all'una di notte è arrivato il verdetto negativo sul rinnovo della licenza: "Nel club esiste una cultura della droga che il management e la security attuale sembrano incapaci di controllare", ha concluso Flora Williamson, presidente del comitato atto a risolvere la questione. "Abbiamo considerato l'aggiunta di ulteriori condizioni, ma siamo arrivati alla conclusione che un gesto simile non toccherebbe i seri problemi esistenti riguardo al management del locale."

Una [**petizione su change.org**](https://www.change.org/p/save-london-s-nightlife-stop-the-closure-of-fabric?mc_cid=b9c52e9820&mc_eid=c808c9a25f) in supporto del Fabric è arrivata a circa 150.000 firme, e diversi personaggi pubblici britannici&#x2014;tra cui il sindaco di Londra, Sadiq Khan, e la parlamentare eletta per Islington South e Finsbury, [**Emily Thornberry**](https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1270309743019070&id=142202379163151). I gestori del club avevano rilasciato diverse dichiarazioni speranzose negli ultimi giorni, promettendo che avrebbero rivisto le loro procedure di sicurezza e prevenzione; Cameron Leslie, co-fondatore del Fabric, aveva giurato che il locale avrebbe stabilito un nuovo "standard dorato" per il clubbing sicuro. Vi terremo aggiornati su qualsiasi sviluppo.

_Segui Noisey su [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/noiseyit/?fref=ts) e [Twitter](https://twitter.com/elia_alovisi)._

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Il consiglio comunale di Islington ha revocato la licenza allo storico club londinese, giudicando l'organizzazione incapace di gestire la "cultura della droga" del locale.

FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Hanno chiuso il Fabric, a Londra :(