Leandro Erlich has his head in the clouds at Bon Marché Rive Gauche
Many dream about touching the sky. What fascinates Leandro Erlich, Argentinian artist invited by Bon Marché Rive Gauche for a carte blanche all in height, is our perception of what surrounds us, simple or inaccessible things, and all the ways to transform it. With “Sous le ciel”, his project for the Rue de Sèvres department store inaugurated this week, the artist invited regular customers to look up – and see the sky of Paris differently. More than an in situ work, Erlich reimagines the emblematic escalators in an interlaced circuit, without beginning or end, whose sinuous structure surprises as much as it marvels. As soon as we arrive in the heart of Le Bon Marché, we lean back so that a blue sky installed on the ceiling is revealed before our amazed eyes (and smartphones brandished). In the department store, the beautiful day reigns (and the birds migrate) while outside the night thickens. A few words (in French!) from the artist and a concert between piano and DJ of Luciano Supervielle, and the festivities begin. On the program, empanadas and dreams under the enchanting sky… By creating Le Bon Marché, Aristide Boucicaut and his wife Marguerite wanted to make their customers ” walkers “. 160 years later, Leandro Erlich succeeded in turning them into dreamers.
