Interesting piece that is being reported about an artists’ cooperative whose leader has been sentenced to probation because they built an apartment in a shopping mall as part of a project. (Courtesy of AP)
- The 7 artists made a 750 square apartment in the parking garage and lived in it at three weeks at a time
- They used a non descript utility door to hide it from the outside world.
- It was fully furnished inside but had no running water – they used the facilities in the mall
It was built…
“…out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper.”
The project was inspired by the advertising for the mall as it was being built during the Christmas season of 2003 and 2004. Radio ads for the Providence Place Mall…
“….featured an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall.”
According to Peter Townsend’s blog ‘Apartment at the Mall’
“The central theme of the ads was that the mall not only provided a rich shopping experience, but also had all the things that one would need to survive and lead a healthy life. This, along with a wide variety of theoretical musings about my relationship to the mall – as a citizen and public artists – provided the final catalyst for making the apartment.”
The artists plan to offer up some observations and share some experiences in the future about their time at the mall. Which should be interesting as the artist states:
“The mall made me think very carefully about what we buy.”
Should be interesting.
