Leeds 13's members pretended to take a week's holiday on the Spanish Costa del Sol (English: Sun Coast), an activity generally regarded as leisure.

In the academic year 1997–1998, there were thirteen third-year fine art students at the University of Leeds:[4] nine women and four men.

Their tutor Terry Atkinson's anti-pedagogy and emphasis on the practice of art rather than the aesthetic objects that it produced were later cited as key influences on the group.

The students would appear to take a week-long package holiday on the Costa del Sol then say they had made art and the exhibition out of themselves and their trip.

[8] The students applied to their representative body, Leeds University Union, for money to mount an exhibition and were granted £1,126.

The group's supposed arrival back from Spain would be staged at the local international airport for invited guests.

[17][18] They forged airline tickets, baggage labels,[19] and the franking mark on a postcard apparently sent from Spain to their tutor.

[19] Other backdrops included Leeds bars and a mural, that reminded the students of Gaudí, at a Spanish-themed nightclub in Cayton Bay.

On the evening of 6 May 1998,[20] around 60 guests,[17] including Atkinson and the head of the department Ken Hay,[9] arrived at East Street Studios, Leeds.

After half an hour, an air stewardess appeared and led the guests to a bus that took them to Leeds Bradford Airport.

[19][11] They told the guests the holiday story,[12] invited them to the airport bar and after a couple of hours paid the bill with the last of the donations.

[11] On Friday 15 May, Leeds Student ran "Con Artists' Spanish Rip-Off" on the front page and continued inside with "And They Call This Art?

[17] The objections were later summarised as "... indignation at the cheek of lazy students declaring that their holiday was an artwork, and moral outrage over the misappropriation of funds."

[14] Using the group as the latest example, the Yorkshire Evening Post condemned modern artists as more skilled at self-promotion than making art objects.

On Tuesday 19 May 1998, a member of the group appeared on the BBC Radio 4 morning news and current-affairs programme Today.

And, having criticised the letter writer's knowledge of art history and theory, they concluded by questioning his authority to judge their work.

"[7] The Guardian's art critic Adrian Searle wrote Going Places was a fantastic work that played with popular stereotypes.

As well as Atkinson and Hay, the piece quoted artist John Stezaker who found the fictional trip interesting and deserving of the top grade.

According to a BBC News report, "Examiners praised them for challenging popular perceptions about how art is produced, taught and criticised.

In Rugoff's view, Leeds 13, and contemporaries Decima Gallery, were the first artists to make the media their principal medium.

[23] Going Places and its "... media frenzy ..." ended the year among the news highlights of 1998 picked by Claire Sanders for The Times Higher Education Supplement.

[34] In the Going Places artist's statement, the students wrote "We have produced no tangible end object for market, ..."[13] A group member explained the art was the impression that their efforts had created in people's minds.

Mounted by RCA students on the MA (Visual Arts Administration), the exhibition included works by over thirty artists.

[35] The members of Leeds 13, who all graduated the previous year, showed a collection of Going Places items wrapped and priced.

They included sculpture by Duchamp and Barbara Hepworth, bronze by Rodin and Henry Moore, paintings by David Shepherd and Damien Hirst, collage by Kurt Schwitters, a poster by Jeff Koons, photographs by Jo Spence, the BANK fax-back service and performance by Decima Gallery.

[45] Shepherd, who exhibited two paintings, said the show was a good opportunity for the public to view a diverse collection of work.

[42] Leeds 13's fourteen members received upper second class for The Degree Show, the studio practice half of their marks.

Walker wrote the project was a prank by young artists to pay the media back for their barbed coverage of contemporary art.

In the studio guide, Pollock, assisted by two Leeds 13 members, focused on the anti-pedagogical and feminist aspects of the group and its work.

The podcast also featured Wainwright, who covered the group for The Guardian, and he commented on Going Places from the media's point of view.