Founding Editors Cecilia Dean and James Kaliardos of VISIONAIRE partner with NET-A-PORTER.COM and MR PORTER.COM to host an event on Thursday December 6, 2012 at the newly opened SLS Hotel in South Beach, Miami. The event features an interactive art installation by world-renowned multi-media artist Jonathan Horowitz, and a digital ‘style challenge’ from NET-A-PORTER.COM and MR PORTER.COM.
Jonathan Horowitz’s “FREE STORE” is an interactive installation in which visitors are given the simple directive, “Bring stuff in you can’t use, take stuff away that you can.” Guests are sent canvas tote bags with these instructions silk-screened on the side and are encouraged to use these bags to follow suit. According to the artist, “It doesn’t have to be an exchange. You can just bring stuff in or just take stuff away. I don’t want there to be any rules. Hopefully some kind of golden rule will just naturally occur and people won’t drop off socks with holes in them and take things away to sell on their own.”
FREE STORE has previously been exhibited at New York and London Art Galleries, and finds have included designer clothes, rare books and LPs, antique figurines, and even a working computer. In those highly controlled environments, the organically generated, anarchic economy of the FREE STORE served to puncture a hole through the rarefied art world ether of commodity display and sale. During Art Basel Miami Beach, where the speed of consumption is accelerated to a whirlwind pace, FREE STORE acts as antidote or fuel, depending on your mindset.
To get the ball rolling, VISIONAIRE started amassing “stuff” before the event, including personal objects from Rob Pruitt, Maurizio Cattelan, Marilyn Minter, Carol Bove; fashion designer Riccardo Tisci (Givenchy); collectors Shelley Fox Aarons, Allison Sarofim, Eva Chow, Yvonne Force; musician Michael Stipe; title hosts Cecilia Dean, James Kaliardos, Natalie Massenet and Jeremy Langmead along with many more.
DECEMBER 6, 2012
SLS HOTEL, SOUTH BEACH, MIAMI