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From: Veepa Patel Category: Art Date: 24 November 2008 Time: 06:25 PM Review: You have to admire the Mayfair art squatters, they have occupied a beautiful empty house in the snootiest of neighbourhoods ( is this term even appropriate for the collection of hotels, embassies, super rich, and restaurants that make this area up). Inside the house is a peaceful mix of seemingly positive and motivated youngish people. They have made some scrappy art when actually more highly finished work would be more surprising. And as once said many years on this site- why do rich kids get the best squats, probably it is a question of being to the manor born, not feeling out of place in this environment, and having the confidence born of good schools and supportive parents and having never been poor not by choice. One squatter was on his gap year which made me smile. Anyway it must be an awful effort living together, discussing it all, and deciding who to let in, and I see why folks prefer the privacy of alienated capitalism, also hot water is one of the best things we trade our souls for. In a Park Lane Squat down the road, the people were more obviously needy, a reformed mentalist homeless guy taking his meds, and a south african itinerant electrician. They were housing some pleasant dogs, and were friendly and eager to chat, but seemed less ambitious and organised than their fellow squatters. Which would you choose? The more rule-based art middle- class squatters, or the anarchic, colder, dirtier lower class desparate squatters? Overall a fascinating central london vacation from my suburban slum hovel in the sticks and a glimpse of a kind of freedom which requires hard work and dedication.