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).
