It was in this context that curators Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen initiated Retail Apocalypse at ETH Zurich, producing a compendium of case studies ranging from Félix Vallotton’s depiction of the Bon Marché to Friedrich Kiesler’s display windows to TELFAR’s critical utopias. The research project can be read as a time capsule for the entire glorious, messy, self-aggrandizing history of retail.
Visit Retail Apocalypse of The CCA here.
which unpacks the ETH’s research. Pages from the project publication provide context for objects displayed from the CCA’s collections and critical reflections on canonical case studies.
in which a series of documentary films and video essays contextualize the so-called retail apocalypse of the early aughts. The CCA Octagonal gallery mirrors a surveillance room where visitors can observe spaces of accumulation, saturation, decline, and crisis.
Starting September, the exhibition will reflect on contemporary transformations in retail with
Renaissance. On display will be architectural case studies and fashion brands testing the limits of commerce as a site for critical practice – challenging the notion of capital itself and confronting politics of labour, gender, class, and value.
