Sous le Ciel
Le Bon Marché has invited artist Leandro Erlich to create several installations for the store. The Argentine artist, famed for employing optical illusions in his work, has created site-specific installations under the moniker Sous Le Ciel (Under the Sky) for the Parisian department store.
Paying homage to the City of Lights, the artist composed an ode to the unique sky of Île-de-France, to its very specific luminosity, its soft colours that change constantly over the course of each day and each season. To do so, he filled the store's windows with wispy cloudlike shapes. Inside, surreal cloud formations are projected on a giant screen erected under the store's glass roof.
The most striking site-specific installation was inspired by the "iconic" quality of the central escalator, designed by Andrée Putman in 1990, and makes it look as twisted as a pretzel.
Scheduled to run from Jan. 12 to Feb. 18, "Sous le Ciel" marks the third time the retailer has opened its doors to a contemporary artist, following installations by Ai Weiwei in 2016 and Chiharu Shiota in 2017.