THE HAÇIENDAWATCH

The Haçiendawatch project began in 2012 documenting individuals being photographed beneath the signage for The Hacienda Apartments, Manchester, which were built on the site of the former Haçienda nightclub. Opening on 21 May 1982, The Haçienda ran until 28 June 1997 when it finally closed. The building was subsequently acquired by Crosby Homes, who demolished it in November 2000 and constructed The Haçienda Apartments on the site. The new building has now become a site of modern cultural pilgrimage, with people stopping to take photographs beneath the apartment’s signage. The repetition of the formal framing of each image in the Haçiendawatch series serves to highlight the variety of responses and poses displayed by the participants. Taken from a distant vantage point overlooking the building, these images function as double portraits, capturing a photograph within a photograph. The nightclub was named after a quote from Ivan Chtcheglov's manifesto "Formulary for a New Urbanism" from 1953.

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You’ll never see the hacienda. It doesn’t exist.

The hacienda must be built.

All cities are geological. You can’t take three steps without encountering ghosts bearing all the prestige of their legends. We move within a closed landscape whose landmarks constantly draw us toward the past. Certain shifting angles, certain receding perspectives, allow us to glimpse original conceptions of space, but this vision remains fragmentary.