{"id":58,"date":"2010-10-17T20:50:51","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T20:50:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halfslant.com\/?p=58"},"modified":"2026-03-09T19:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:50:14","slug":"the-commercial-center-sans-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halfslant.com\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"The Commercial Center Sans Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Commercial Center Sans Commerce : Before the Shops, the Dreamers<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Halfslant in collaboration with CHIC ART FAIR<\/a>, Paris will take over the ground floor or the Cite de la Mode et du Design<\/span><\/a> with a two part project of creating a utopian commercial center. Artists selected from participating CHIC galleries as well as actors,designers, and professionals from a variety of backgrounds will take over the ground floor boutiques of the Cite de la Mode et du Design to construct the fictitious utopia of a commerce-free shopping mall. With a new art fair, a new building and a new purpose, The Commercial Center Sans Commerce offers a unique vision of what this future commercial center could be. Instead of lifeless decoration, contemporary art provides the permanent fixtures and thematic touch-points of the space. The art work helps develop a fiction that reflects the architectural optimism of the building itself – a place were ideas are realized and where the future potential of a space\u00c2\u00a0is pushed in new directions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Commercial Center Sans Commerce features specialized boutiques and Promenade featuring work by select CHIC artists and Halfslant interventions<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/strong>“Deupatosorus” Ghyslain Bertholon (School Gallery<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"\" “Cotton Swab” David Miguel<\/p>\n

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The Commercial Center\u00e2\u20ac™s entrance and hallways are full of touch-points that replace the usual fountains, furniture and lighting with more evocative and daring alternatives<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

New York based designer beholdthedestroyer!<\/a> (Halfslant<\/a>) sets the scene with his custom store signage, information point, and the Commercial Center\u00e2\u20ac™s own website (www.sanscommerce.com)<\/p>\n

Immediately at the entrance to the Commercial Center, the 24H Pharmacy<\/em><\/strong> (24H Pharmacie) is always open but with only one thing available: a huge pink Cotton-Swab by artist David Miguel <\/strong>(Art Business CD\/Christophe Delavault) which represents the idea of hygienic relief on a massive scale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gerardo Di Crola\u00e2\u20ac™s<\/strong> (Galerie Ma Collection<\/a>) melting ice sculptures serve as the Commercial Center\u00e2\u20ac™s fountains, except that his works features water in all of its forms: solid, liquid and steam. For the vernissage only, his piece Sans-Titre 1975-2010<\/em>, will be featured at the entrance of the Commercial Center.<\/p>\n

After passing through security, shoppers will also pass over\u00c2\u00a0Igor Jozifov<\/strong> (Galerie EGP<\/a>) platform\u00c2\u00a02-Dimensional<\/em> for additional review before being allowed to enter the Commercial Center.<\/p>\n

A monumental Mao Costume<\/em> by Benxing Song<\/strong> (School Gallery<\/a>) is the Commercial Center\u00e2\u20ac™s answer to a big department store. This giant suit piece reminds all shoppers that we are indeed in the Cite de la Mode et du Design.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac™s always hard to find a place to sit in a mall, here is no different. Shoppers fight over the chance to enjoy Meltdown Bench: PP Blue Rope<\/em> by Tom Price<\/strong> (Outdoorz Gallery<\/a>), a bench composed of melted and un-melted rope.<\/p>\n

Lighting along the hallway is provided by Phillipe H\u00c3\u00a9rault<\/strong> (HROOM VOZ’ Images<\/a>), his TRI lamps<\/em> line the main hall with cheerful wands that are visible from the Seine. His Cylindrique lamp<\/em>, evocative of a maze or switchboard, marks the entrance to the Video- Arcade.<\/p>\n

A Deupatosorus<\/em> by Ghyslain Bertholon<\/strong> (School Gallery<\/a>) guards a wing of the building. The sculpture is a play on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Deupat\u00e2\u20ac\u009d car which many people remember fondly in their childhoods, but are seen today as dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

What is a high end boutique in a place where you cannot spend any money? Dan Wilcox, Elena Damiano, Misti Boettiger <\/strong>and troupe of actors explore this in their improvisational performance, A Votre Service<\/em> (Halfslant<\/a>), where performers greet shoppers with the dream object that only the employees can see in The Dream Object Boutique [L\u00e2\u20ac™Objet R\u00c3\u00aav\u00c3\u00a9]<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also on display in the boutique are works by Patrick Lebret (Galerie Ma Collection<\/span><\/a>) whose installation Les Princesses are enlarged reproductions of works by his children. These \u00e2\u20ac\u0153princessess\u00e2\u20ac\u009d reference design and fashion in its most pure and innocent form.<\/p>\n

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In The Do It Yourself Furniture Boutique [Faites-Vous M\u00c3\u00aame], Breaded Escalope (Outdoorz Gallery<\/span><\/a>) hosts collaborative workshops allowing shoppers to create furniture on the spot with their Original Products Performance as well as out of everyday materials such as their Samsa Bucket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Great Escapes Travel Agency<\/em><\/strong> [Agence de Voyage] features only one great escape : Isabelle Fr\u00c3\u00a9min\u00e2\u20ac™s<\/strong> (Galerie W<\/span><\/a>) Vacances<\/em> is a sculpture of a person whose head is submerged in a kiddy pool. A radio transmits broadcasts to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153swimmer\u00e2\u20ac\u009d through the snorkel. Anyway to get away…<\/p>\n

The Portable Real Estate Agency <\/strong>[<\/em>Immobilier Mobile], has all of it\u00e2\u20ac™s listed properties available for immediate visitation: within the agency itself. Leave with your new private space, which you can transplant anywhere! Currently available is Gilles Ouaki\u00e2\u20ac™s Cheese, a camera which doubles as an apartment . C\u00c3\u00a9cile Le Talec (<\/span>School Gallery<\/span><\/span><\/a>) offers a reflective alternative in her monumental SOUNDSCAPE BOX – FOLIE N\u00c2\u00b02, located in the center of the store. The room can fit several people, but only one person can enjoy the zen experience comprise of sound and a bonsai forest. Edouard Sautai (<\/span>Exit Art Contemporain<\/span><\/span><\/a>) presents Pi\u00c3\u00a8ce d\u00c3\u00a9tach\u00c3\u00a9e, a caravan that is actually a small part of a larger building conceived and designed by Polish architect Iwona Buczkowska. The simplest of all commercial property available at the agency is David Miguel\u00e2\u20ac™s (Art Business CD\/Christophe Delavault) Untitled shopping cart. This sparse habitat is made up of two simple elements: a shopping cart and bed sheet in the form of a makeshift tent.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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There are so many fun things to do in our Video-Arcade<\/em><\/strong> – get lost, dance, rent a movie. Dominique Dehais<\/strong> (Galerie La Ferronnerie<\/span><\/a>) makes you feel part of a game in H\u00c3\u00a9t\u00c3\u00a9rotopia<\/em> which welcomes you as you enter the Video-Arcade<\/em><\/strong>, with it panels placed on a reflective dance floor and a colorful maze that leads the viewer though the space into On the Brink<\/em> by Laurent Fi\u00c3\u00a9vet<\/strong> (Galerie La Ferronnerie<\/span><\/a>). This immersive music\/dance box relives one of the most famous songs from the The Sound of Music, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sixteen Going On Seventeen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. The double video projection features a dancing couple that seem to be suspended in the frenetic swirling of a music box. The Video-Club 2010+<\/em><\/strong> is both the future of movie rental and a return to old fashioned video rental. Here you are only provided with a printed internet link to a video from the curated collection of low and high brow films, with the creative direction of Ana Lee-Karkar<\/strong> and designs by Laure Martinez<\/strong> (Halfslant<\/span><\/a>).<\/p>\n

CHIC ART FAIR – Paris, France<\/h1>\n
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C\u00c3\u00a9cile Griesmar and Sandrine Bisognin, Creators and Associate Directors of CHIC ART FAIR have actualized CHIC ART FAIR after several exciting and fruitful years spent in the world of art fairs and contemporary art, so as to specifically center their interest around the work of young artists in order to help a new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153discourse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d emerge.<\/p>\n

CHIC ART FAIR is a space for dialogue between works, for bringing together artists of different generations as well as design artists, for allowing those who conceive the world and who give it form to meet in a single space. Whereas fairs are traditionally wary about the intermingling of creative artists, it is CHIC\u00e2\u20ac™s intention to bring their visions together, hoping to engender mutant objects that will renew our perception of things, or should we say, of objects. CHIC ART FAIR is a system where reciprocity, interdisciplinary and dialogue are constantly at play.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n