Check out: Item Idem

Paris has become a hub for interesting store concepts and this pseudo supermarket has more to offer than canned soup. Item Idem is a living artwork – an immersive space splicing art, design and pop culture inside the former Auchan supermarket on rue Bleue. It is the work of French conceptual artist, designer and filmmaker Cyril Duval, who operates under the name Item Idem and creates worlds at the intersection of art, product design, branding and retail, exploring and dissecting notions of consumerism. 

His superstore’s opening “show” last October dropped special re-issues of limited-edition hoodies and t-shirts from artist Barbara Kruger's Untitled (The Drop) – her original 2017 work included a pop-up in New York’s SoHo selling Kruger-branded merch only available in a limited timeframe – a comment on the hype and consumerism of streetwear "drops". Other superstore “offers” included works by French visual artist Ben Vautier and the Lithuanian-American master George Maciunas, founder of the sixties avant garde collective Fluxus, a group who sought to merge art with everyday life through performances, happenings and multiples (mass-producible works).

Item Idem channels this ethos: works are presented as Shanzhai objects – imitations of coveted brands that suggest art can be popped into a shopping basket as easily as milk or eggs. This is a middle fingered salute to the conventions of the art market. 

The artworks, merchandise and in-house events at the superstore constantly change. There is a new drop of Kruger apparel and, during the festive period, Item Idem hosted "The Holiday Market", a design fest, which also includes art and rare pieces, with lashings of tongue-in-cheek insurrection. What went wild in the aisles? Philippe Starck’s Attila garden gnomes (tables made by Kartell), and Paul McCarthy’s inflatable Brancusi Tree – yes, the one that had Parisians seething when it was erected in the city in 2014 – it resembles a butt plug. Other pieces included those by the late conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner; “Disney classics” by the avant-garde designer Pierre Colleu and iconic works by the Memphis Group The impressive line-up of names went on: David Hockney and Damien Hirst, Gaetano Pesce and Mario Bellini… The artist has just promoted an "Everything must go around and come back" 50% infinity sale.

Duval, who was discovered by Colette’s co-founder Sarah Andelman in 2004, who asked him to work on the “Colette meets Comme des Garçons” project in Tokyo –  a precursor to the modern pop-up – has form for creating cool conceptual spaces. Amongst them are a collaboration with German fashion designer Bernhard Willhelm at his flagship in the Parco department store in Shibuya, Tokyo – a space transformed into an urban jungle referencing “the architecture” of homeless Japanese communities and their use of cardboard and plastic tied together by rope. He was also a co-creator behind the space at Berlin’s Bless Home, a real apartment doubling as a shop on Oderberger Strasse 60, which is run by the live-in manager. The entire place is shoppable, but you can make yourself at home, drink tea and settle down with a book.

Open 12pm to 8pm; closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. Item Idem, 14 rue Bleue, 75009 Paris; itemidem.store