NOV
If you are vegetarian look away now! As a child I used to hate running errands to the butchers shop for my mother. The shop did not smell well, there was sawdust, bloody fingerprints everywhere, off-cuts of fat on the floor… I will save you some of the less savoury bits!
When Design 8 was asked to redesign a butcher’s shop in the old town of Kamakura, Japan, they conceived something entirely different with the atmosphere more akin to an exclusive restaurant. Read more
JUN
Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Modern in London, defined art as existing solely for its own purpose. I paraphrase slightly as I do not remember the exact quotation, but the point is his definition suggests art is not there to sell stuff.
I invite you to consider Serota’s notion in the form of this clothes boutique in Montreal, Canada. The space was designed by Saucier + Perrotte Architect and is a refurbishment of some old warehouse space. In that sense it is unremarkable and similar retail environments can be seen in edgy, fashionable districts of London, Berlin and New York. But taken as a whole the the project aims to draw in the work of various artists treating the store as an art space.
It is selling, there is no doubt about that, but is it art? Read more
