Publication accompanying a now-legendary project organized by Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann, Dierk Schmidt, Birger Hübel, Michaela Odinius, and others. Messe2ok. ÖkonoMiese machen was an alternative, self-financed project that took place concurrent with the extremely powerful Art Cologne art fair. A key project from the 1990s, Messe2ok brought together many important figures and groups in the independent, politically engaged German art scene (art, but also music, political activism, etc.) as well as like-minded groups from other European countries, who advanced a critique of the art world economy and globalized market, as well as the fashion for city planning and urban development linked to culture, through a focus on critical practices, self-organization, collective work, feminist perspectives, an examination of artistic autonomy, etc. The project included an exhibition, panel discussions and other discursive events, and was accompanied by this self-published ‘reader’ with research material, newspaper clippings, documentation of art projects and activist activities, interviews, and texts all of which presents a snapshot of a key scene at a moment of critical mass and action.