Personal Shopper
11/07/2009 - 18:23
Your own personal Jesus on display during Tendence 2009, Messe Frankfurt, in an exhibition curated by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien.
Frankfurt am Main 3-7/07/09
Text by Doshi and Levian
"We were invited by Messe Frankfurt to select 80 products from the entire Ambiente show in February around which we designed an exhibition for Tendence. This installation and the objects selected reflect a view of design according to a personality. Our 'personal shopper' is Bobo.
In the world of Parisian fashion, the term 'Le Bobo' (short for Bourgeois Bohème), which also had political connotations, was applied to "typically discerning customers who are left wing and left bank"; or, put another way, "that subset of thirty- or forty-something-year-olds who don't allow their socialist leanings to interfere with an enjoyment of material pleasures". Les Bobos are creative and imaginative about how they shape their material environments and their sense of 'Quality' transends and defies conventional boundaries and hierarchies. "Le Bobo" is someone who enjoys and perceives qualities in both extremes from the low cost mass-produced and playful to fine crafted luxury items.
During the long walk over three days that it took to find 80 products for this show, we were looking for 'Quality' in the eyes of 'Le Bobo'. We scanned the stands looking for materiality, beautiful making, graphic impact, cultural significance, some intrinsic quality that made us desire an object and select it for the show. This can be seen between Halls 5.1 and 6.1"