Pitch Your Own Tent: Art Projects | Store 5 | 1st Floor was an exhibition and publication examining the history of contemporary Australian art from 1979 to 2002 through the activities and practices of three influential artist-run spaces:

• Art Projects, Melbourne, 1979–84, established by John Nixon
• Store 5, Melbourne, 1989–93, established by Gary Wilson
• 1st Floor, Melbourne, 1994–2002, established by David Rosetzky

The exhibition explored a strong lineage in the recent history of contemporary Australian art of avant-garde, experimental and innovative practices and discourses developed by communities of artists through independent artist-run exhibition and publishing initiatives.

Each of the three respective artist-run spaces was represented through one of MUMA’s three galleries, which provided the opportunity to represent each organisation in context, while also allowing a comparison of the ideas, modes of display, and material culture of each respective enterprise. One contention of the exhibition was the degree to which it is artists themselves who are responsible for the interpretation and writing of art history.

One important parameter that was established within the curatorial framework was to involve only those works of art that were presented in the programs of the artist-run spaces, thereby invoking the forms, production values and materiality of the respective periods. The title Pitch Your Own Tent makes reference to Gustave Courbet, who pitched his own tent in front of the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, to Ti Parks’ tents (one of which was exhibited at Art Projects and was included in this exhibition), to Rikrit Taravanija's tent installed in front of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and to the perpetually provisional and itinerant nature of artist-run spaces generally.

Given that the programs of Art Projects, Store 5 and 1st Floor were each ambitious, diverse and encompassed exhibition and publishing programs conducted over periods of five to nine years, the exhibition focused upon the principal artists, and selected works that have made influential and/or lasting contributions, or were strongly representative of innovative visual arts culture of the time.

To coincide with the exhibition, MUMA also published an extensive catalogue, featuring essays by Carolyn Barnes, Max Delany, Robyn McKenzie, Tessa Dwyer, Andrew Hurle, Danny Huppatz and Sarah Tutton.

Exhibition Catalogue:
Pitch Your Own Tent

^{Image: Pitch Your Own Tent, installation view, Switchback Gallery, Gippsland Centre for Art and Design, Vic., 2005}