SHOP SHOP
In 2014 a group of 12 artists was running a shop in Brussels during one year, starting in January 2014. Shop Shop was a collective artistic experiment embedded in a local economy primarily addressing basic needs. Its neighbours were butcheries, bakeries and night shops, rather than fashion stores or art galleries. In this specific context the group researched the etymological root of the term ‘commerce’, in which the prefix ‘com’ signifies ‘together’.
 
‘Researching’ was understood as ‘thinking through doing’. All participating artists promised to dedicate 10 to 20 % of their professional time to Shop Shop.
Firstly, they would be present with their individual artistic practices. Out of these, products and services could emerge which, in their turn, could be sold. Secondly, they would engage in the collective decision-making process of how to run the shop. The team would discuss and put into practice every phase of opening and running a shop: collecting the starting capital, investing, finding and installing the place, deciding what to sell, connecting to the existing local economy, producing and promoting the various articles and services, defining the value and price of these goods, selling, reinvesting the money and so on. Through dealing with ‘real’ products, ‘real’ money, ‘real’ problems, the group was aiming to redefine ‘product’, ‘value’, ‘profit’, ‘risk’, ‘consumption’, ‘competition’, ‘cooperation’,...
 
The team of Shop Shop consisted of Ariane Loze, Christoph Ragg, Einat Tuchman, Elke Van Campenhout, Heike Langsdorf, Michel Yang, Michiel Reynaert, Miriam Rohde, Nicolas Y Galeazzi, Raquel Santana de Morais, Sébastien Hendricks, Anne Cecile Vandalem.
The group tried to avoid fixed hierarchies. Risks and responsibilities were shared; each member had an equal say; functions shifted from one person to another.

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[SHOP SHOP stems from THE FUTURE IS NOW approach. >>>]</sup>