The
History of Luna Nera
the Colosseum Project
The Colosseum Theatre was built in the 19th century as a theatre and
music hall. It was the first silent film cinema in London, but closed
in the 1960's. [1] It has been boarded up since then,
its glorious Victorian interior crumbling to dust. In the 1990s part of
it was used as a rave club. The artists gained permission to use the Old
Colosseum as studio and exhibition space for film and video, circus performance,
painting, photography, sculpture, installation art and much more...
[images of the Old Colosseum here]
Colosseum
I (October 1997) ... Projections filled the cavernous
space with light and colour, as trapeze artists hung from the skeletal
remains of the domed ceiling... Sculptures lurked in mysterious places,
paintings, installations and photographs hung on cracked walls and mirrors
...
Cabaret featured the Tiger Lillies, Evil Moisture, Marisa Carnesky of the Dragon Ladies Grotesque Burlesque Revue, Starkstrom, Natasha Mayran, Bingo, This Way Up, Licky, Moses Man In The Air, Phil Dirtbox and Taka's Sleazy Berlin Cabaret.
Cinema by the Colosseum Project and Exploding Cinema, featuring work by Charo Corrales, Duncan Reekie, Michelle Carlile, Emma Hetherington, Gillian McIver, Jean-Marc Teychenne, Arthur Lager, Nam Guy Kim, Mark Downie, Derek Hart, Simon Hyde, Mark Hamilton, George Butler and Pravin Permaul.Gallery by Nicoela Green and Jairo Zaldua, Caia Matheson, Jason Royce, Liliana Klimova, Jean-Marc Teychenne, Valentina Floris, Gillian McIver, Stephanie Crouail, Sandrine Albert, Chris Singer, Jeff Brown, Charo Corrales.
Colosseum
II (November - December 1997) featured gallery
work by Nicola Green and Jairo Zaldua, Caia Matheson, Sandrine Albert,
Michael Park and Stephanie Mas, Gillian McIver, Valentina Floris, Chris
Singer, Charo Corrales, Disco Kid TeeVee, Jo Vox, Evil Moisture, Claudine
Schaeffer-Legrand, Tracy Brown. 
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In early 1998, Hackney Council forced through plans to pull the building down and convert the site into a shopping centre, car park and multiplex cinema. Sadly, almost all of the old theatres in this area - which boasted the highest concentration of theatres in London, many of them gorgeous - have been torn down or boarded up. However the shopping mall was not built and the building stood empty for 10 years, until in 2008 it was finally pulled down to make way for the Tube extenson.[2]
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Colosseum III:
Because of the eviction from the Colosseum, the artist moved their show
for the Whitechapel Open into a former ironworks also in Dalston. Ours
was a subversive and sometimes shocking contribution to the Whitechapel
Gallery's programme. The participating artists were Valentina Floris,
Gillian McIver, Chris Singer, Sandrine Albert, Caia Matheson, Michael
Park, Tim Mould, mark video.
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Colosseum IV: from 15 - 24 October 1998 The Colosseum Project created an event in a disused bank in Shoreditch, London. A derelict, empty area, it is nevertheless only moments away from the vast shining temples of Mammon in the City of London, a City that is steadily encroaching on the artists1 strongholds of Spitalfields, Shoreditch and Hackney. The art hanging on the walls of offices and banks in the City of London is corporate art: smooth, passionless, un-challenging. In a fitting reversal of uses we transformed this bank space into a dark, underground, exciting gallery of the most passionate and avant-garde art that is being produced today.
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Colosseum IV: The last Colosseum Project show was in 1999, at the House of Detention in London's Clerkenwell district. This 17th century underground prison had been closed since the end of the 19th century but in its day housed many famous felons, highwayment etc. Each artist was given a prison cell to exhibit installation, durational performance, video, painting etc. by Gillian McIver, Valentina Floris, Sandrine Albert, Julian Ronnefeldt, Chris Singer, Mark Video, Michael Park, Juana Serrat, David Remondo, Stelio Stylianou. Evening performances by Natasha Mayran, Marissa Carnesky, Adrian Palka and others.
At the beginning of 2000 Sandrine Albert, Valentina Floris, Gillian McIver, Mark Video, Mike Park, Natasha Mayran & Chris Singer relaunched as Luna Nera, continuing the project of site-responsive/site-specific art in disused urban spaces. Ben Foot and Julian Ronnefeldt joined formally in 2002, while Chris Singer, Mike Park and Mark Video moved on to other projects.
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[1]Dalston theatre in Roseberry Place, holding 1,030, was opened in 1886 and used for a circus until 1890 as the North London Colosseum or with similar names. A new building, designed by Wylson & Long for 3,516 and originally to be called Dalston Palace of Varieties, was opened in 1898 (Footnote 39) and had become Dalston Picture theatre by 1912.
[2] The site was squatted intermittently amid attempts to save the building which unfortunately was too far decayed to be salvaged.
(source http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22705)
Colosseum Group manifesto 1998
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