shop shop | 2014

SHOP SHOP

>>> part of >>>  OTÇOE - works for passers-by

On the initiative of Heike Langsdorf, a group of 15 artists will run a shop in Brussels during one year, starting in the second half of 2013. Shop Shop is a collective artistic experiment embedded in a local economy primarily addressing basic needs. Its neighbours will be butcheries, bakeries and night shops, rather than fashion stores or art galleries. In this specific context the group wants to research the etymological root of the term ‘commerce’, in which the prefix ‘com’ signifies ‘together’.
 
‘Researching’ is here understood as ‘thinking through doing’. All participating artists promise to dedicate 10 to 20 % of their professional time to Shop Shop. Firstly, they are present with their individual artistic practices. Out of these, products and services can emerge which, in their turn, can be sold. Secondly, they engage in the collective decision-making process of how to run the shop. The team will 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 aims to redefine ‘product’, ‘value’, ‘profit’, ‘risk’, ‘consumption’, ‘competition’, ‘cooperation’,...
 
Next to Langsdorf, the team of Shop Shop consists of Carlotta Scioldo, Raquel Santana de Morais, Einat Tuchman, Nicolas Y Galeazzi, Christoph Ragg, Michiel Reynaert, Dolores Hulan, Ariane Loze, Miriam Rohde, Varinia Canto Vila, Elke Van Campenhout, Sébastien Hendrickx, Lilia Mestre, Hadewych Cocquyt and Michel Yang. The group tries to avoid fixed hierarchies. Risks and responsibilities are shared; each member has an equal say; functions shift from one person to another.

official proposal >>>


SHOP is coming forth from the future is now practice.












practice in progress :
radical_hope
shop developpers :
Hadewych Cocquyt, Elke van Campenhout-Bureau dEspoir, Varinia Canto Vila, Nicolas Y Galeazzi, Sébastien Hendrickx, Dolores Hulan, Heike Langsdorf, Ariane Loze, Lilia Mestre, Christoph Ragg, Michiel Reynaert, Miriam Rohde, Raquel Santana de Morais
and :
Carlotta Scioldo, Einat Tuchman, Michel Yang