A Shop that isn't a Shop

This does seem to be the year to celebrate all things surreal but I think a store that isn’t actually a store takes the surreal biscuit for me.  The Wrong Store is a store window on 10th Avenue, near 29th in Manhattan, New York which opened on the 19th May.  Basically, it’s a 100 sq feet space with curated items set up in the manner of a concept/guerilla pop-up store.  But it’s actually an art installation that is meant to imitate a shop.  Nothing is for sale.  You can only peer through the glass.  There are no handles on the door.  The sign is provcative yet marking the shop’s inaccessibility.   

Designed by Tobias Wong and Gregory Krum, The Wrong Store is supposed to explore the relationship between a gallery and shop and how we feel towards limitied/unavailable items. 



Without sounding too much like a shopping ditzy simpleton, the way it makes me feel is…. supreme desire to go in and make a purchase!  Yes, I think the art has worked and it got me.  I am most definitely interested in buying the items on display, designed by the likes of Rodarte, BLESS, Work in Progress and Herzog & de Meuron.  Oh well, simple me got sucked in and yes, without prior knowing it’s an art installation, I might easily have walked past trying desperately to get into The Wrong Store, the store that will never be open for you.  (Well you can look at it for another two months if you happen to be in New York). 


(Photos from Core77, Notcot & Mocoloco)

8 comments

  2. I actually stopped in front of here laughing to myself because 2 painfully hip guyus were trying desperately to get in to this unmarked door. They were wearing the uniform, the tight black jeans, the white Raybans…I didn’t know it was an art installation until I read this post but I remember thinking ‘whatever exclusivity the store owner is trying to convey is working because these guys are desparate to get in!’It’s a really good anthropological study, actually.

  3. interesting idea, but didnt claus oldenburg have a similar idea in the sixties with his Store? I guess this is an update for this generation b/c the fashion industry has really exploded w/in the last 20 years to be an billion dollar, comprehensive industry w/ more people buying designer things? Similar idea, different message.

  6. wow… oldenberg did conceptual work? i’m thinking of the giant bow and arrow by the san francisco bay bridge… yikes. but there was a conceptual artist whose name escapes me who posted a notice on the gallery door saying there will be no exhibition. and that was the exhibition. he tried to make art that couldn’t be sold, but the gallery owner sold the notice. so wierd.
    i guess, if this weren’t located near all the chic galleries in new york (dia center for the arts is a block away.. i think) it may catch people more off guard. but then again, it’s new york, and anything can happen there.

  7. yepp. claes oldenburg’s shop was the first thing that came to my mind… It was a fantastic idea then, but still is a great one today. Thanks for the information. I’ll have to take a closer look at it ♥

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