Since designer Agnès B. opened her first eponymous boutique in 1975, the venture has grown into a sizeable network of boutiques and shop-in-shops in cities on three continents. Given the founder’s ardent personal interest in contemporary culture and art, the agnès b. brand automatically formed a strong affiliation with the endeavours of young artists from across the planet. The designer also became a prolific art collector, and eventually, this led to the opening of Galerie du Jour, an exhibition space near the aforementioned first agnès b. store in Paris, and related bookstore Librairie du Jour, in the early 1980s. Following a long range of shows on the premises, both became itinerant venues in 2018. But as of late, they’ve found a new home in the French capital. Situated in the emerging Paris Rive Gauche neighbourhood alongside the Seine river, the new La Fab. gallery occupies 1,400 sqm. (15,070 sq.ft.) set across two lower floors of a modern, multi-storey building by architect Augustin Rosenstiehl of French practice SOA Architectes.
No less than 800 sqm. (8,611 sq.ft.) is dedicated gallery space, and as said, Galerie du Jour can be found here too, but in a retail section guise where everything is for sale, from paintings and sculptures, to photographs and furniture pieces. Librairie du Jour reemerges as a bookstore where publishers are invited to contribute to the selection and presentation of works on display. La Fab.‘s inaugural show, entitled La hardiesse dans la collection agnès b. or ‘Boldness in the agnès b. collection’ in English, and includes works from Agnès B.‘s art collection. Next to a rotating programme of thematic exhibitions which feature works from the aforementioned collection, La Fab. will also spotlight the social and humanitarian actions supported by the Fonds de dotation agnès b. and the designer’s environmental activism, spearheaded by Fondation Tara Océan.
La Fab.
Place Jean-Michel Basquiat
75013 Paris
Telephone: +33 1 87443573
Tue-Sat 11am-7pm
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
