Loïc Prigent has a keen and selective ear.
From February 25 to April 2, the “things heard” he gleaned from the Bon Marché Rive Gauche are the subject of a brand-new exhibition: “Entendu au Bon Marché” by Loïc Prigent. The immaculate, graphic space features white objects printed in black with the best “words” of the store’s visitors. A nice way of showing that, when it comes to language, fun and creativity are widely shared gifts!
Loïc Prigent has a long-standing friendship with Bon Marché Rive Gauche, and has already collaborated 3 times with the department store. For “Entendu au Bon Marché”, he plays on familiar ground, reminding us that this fashion and cultural center is above all a place for life and exchange.
Let’s hear it: “Entendu au Bon Marché, these are phrases heard at Le Bon Marché. For a few days, I let my ears wander in the most Left Bank of department stores. And I heard all the people who make Le Bon Marché the heart of Parisian life. There are the very comfortable regulars, the tourists in the midst of their Parisian discovery, the seasoned sales clerks, the saleswomen with their glibness, the children momentarily left behind: “Are you lost? Where’s your mom? – She’s in the shoes! “There’s lightness, there’s frivolity, there’s comicality, there’s common sense. It’s a carefree attitude that we hear, a place apart: “It’s a sublime coat in which nothing serious can happen to you. “I hate my new hairstyle, I’m destabilized. I need to be lied to. “A place where you build up defenses and an effective shell: “It’s pretty what you’re wearing. – I know. “A common phrase that makes the staff jump up and down is: “Are you the cashier? “It took being asked this question, which I’d probably asked before, for me to realize how funny it was, and also that I’d been spending a bit too much time at Bon Marché. “I want a heel that makes a nice sexy noise when I walk. “Yes, of course, it’s obvious, and we understand exactly what this customer means, the effect she’s looking for, for herself as well as for others. There’s the very stately gentleman with the baritone voice who thunders, “Get me a sweater! “to a salesman, and another who shouldn’t be asked his size: “But how should I know? “Every day, there are stories like the woman who refuses to leave at closing time because she still has to find her scarf and has a plane to Moscow that evening. In her logic, Le Bon Marché shouldn’t close until her neck is protected from the Russian cold. Le Bon Marché is a parallel universe, a protected world where we aim for the ideal: “I’d like gloves that go up” asks an extremely chic lady. Her accompanying friend is looking for “a bag to go to the theater tonight”. I also really enjoyed listening to the gentleman abandoned by his wife on one of the Le Corbusier armchairs at the foot of Andrée Putman’s escalators. Rather than making a long speech, he just snored peacefully, feeling decidedly at home at Le Bon Marché.” Loïc Prigent In an entirely white space, like a page of writing, T-shirts, mugs, caps, tote bags, pencils, tea towels, lighters, postcards, matches, snow globes… printed with black phrases “Overheard at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche by Loïc Prigent” make up a sober, effective, quasi-conceptual installation: an accumulation of everyday, cheap, playful and aesthetic objects. In the windows, on large display panels, phrases are written and unwritten, a foretaste of this journey to Loïc’s country! Everywhere in the store, at the top of the escalator, in a fitting room, at the bend of an aisle, words follow us, accompanying our stroll with their singular and delightful melody. 
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