Turned into a «white cube», Marsèll Paradise is preparing for an oneiric hearing experience and the launch of the brand’s Spring Summer 2023 collection
Concept store Marsèll Paradise in Milan has a new look
Paradise, a Milanese concept store of Venetian brand Marsèll, reopened after a long renovation, which gave it a new look. Located in the district of Porta Romana, in Milan’s historic center, Marsèll Paradise is a two level space. It is conceived as a fluid platform. The ground floor offers a range of books, magazines, and independent publication. The basement, instead, hosts a series of exhibitions and events with a focus on young talents.
«Before the renovation, the space looked more like a shop. Then we decided to make it more similar to a laboratory, turning it into a white cube, more suitable for presentations and events», states Sara Scanderebech, photographer and bookshop curator for Marsèll Paradise. «For example, at the moment we do not keep Marsèll’s shoes any more. Even though they will come back for the Design Week. And now we also have an area equipped for showings». The interiors are characterized by an industrial minimalist style, with a predominance of white color and an abundance of light. «We opted for a more neutral look in order to fill the space with contents».
The renovation process aimed at further expressing Paradise’s experimental soul, with its constant wish to create a dialogue between diverse disciplines and forms of free expression and to contribute to the diffusion of new methods of knowledge.
The opening of Marsèll Paradise
Paradise first opened in 2016. Before that, Marsèll was already present in Milan with the showroom Marsèlleria, also located in the Porta Romana district. Here, the Venetian brand organized its sales campaigns, which were held four times a year.
Not to leave the space empty for the rest of the time, Marsèll decided to use it for temporary exhibitions. «The audience appreciated the initiative so much that at a certain point Marsèll was not able to welcome all proposals. Convinced of the artistic and social relevance of this new activity, started almost by chance, the brand decided to dedicate an entire new space to events and collaborations and to keep it always open to the public». And this is how Paradise was born.
Marsèlleria carries on its double life of showroom and event space.
Marsèll Paradise: a home for inspiration
Paradise derives inspirations for its exhibitions and events from a variety of sources. First of all, from Marsèll’s headquarters in Veneto and secondly, from Milan.
The brand’s art directors and designers usually propose initiatives that reflect their creative process. «They wish to transmit to the general public the experience of creation, because in Marsèll every product is conceived as an art object». In the bookshop visitors can also discover where a particular inspiration for a product came from.
Despite such a bond with the Venetian headquarters, Paradise also managed to become deeply rooted in the Milanese community, establishing a continuous relationship with local artists and receiving proposals for events directly from the territory. «Our public says that we have become a reference and meeting point for the city. Nowadays, it is not easy for young artists, photographers and curators to find hybrid realities as Paradise where to develop and show their ideas. Our goal is to serve as a link between the underground culture and the world of fashion and design. If we manage to do so, it is indeed because of Paradise’s hybrid nature. Were we only a store or only an event space, we could not do it. The books, for example, are at the same time a way of finding new inspirations and a means of spreading culture».
Marsèll Paradise’s bookshop
Marsèll Paradise’s bookshop hosts a heterogeneous variety of books and magazines. «Often we welcome designers and graphic designers, looking for inspiration for their work. But also university students, who need to do research on the most varied subjects».
Here, the customer can find established magazines on fashion and design as well as books by renowned photographers, designers and some artists. An example is Whispering Catastrophe by Jacopo Miliani and Sara Giannini (SelfPleasurePublishing, Milano 2018), a book that explores homosexuality in Japan, focusing on the censorship of the male body’s image and on the history of queer publishing.
The vintage books on display at Marsèll Paradise
Paradise’s shelves also display a selection of vintage books on specific topics. There is a book about luggage and another about cutlery. A book on advertising graphics of cigarettes and another on Japanese stewardesses’ uniforms. «While for new books we follow specific thematic criteria, for the vintage ones we rely on our sensibility and choose according to what we know might attract our public. We are always looking for something that may inspire our creative talents or future creative talents, the students».
Paradise’s books come from all around the world, since it can count on international dealers and even has an Eastern distributor, the Japanese Shashasha.
The bookshop is linked to Marsèll’s creative headquarters by a double track. «Sometimes, designers ask us to search for certain books they need for a particular inspiration. For example, once they wanted to inspire a collection to Le Corbusier’s work, so we collected every book we could find, old and new, on the Franco-Swiss architect. But the opposite also happens. When we encounter publications that we consider interesting, we send them over to our creative headquarters».
Tantotoner by Angelo Flaccavento
In March 2023 Marsèll Paradise hosted Tantotoner, a solo show of Italian illustrator and fashion critic Angelo Flaccavento.
Visitors had to wear cotton white gloves provided by Paradise and leaf through collage booklets made with different materials, containing pieces of drawings Flaccavento defined as «poetically punk». Gloves were requested to preserve both the booklets and the visitors, since the artist put together pieces of plastic and paper either blackened by fire, either treated with chemical agents, but also to draw a parallel with antiques, which people are usually not allowed to touch with their bare hands.
The exhibition was an exploration of the concepts of copy and originality. Indeed, the drawings populating the white pages of the booklets were not original, since they consisted in photocopies on acetate then pasted into paper, but at the same time they were different and exclusive. Indeed, in the booklets those drawings were reinterpreted through unique arrangements and the use of combustion to add new shadings.
Transmitter/Receiver by Carsten Nicolai
For the launch of its Spring Summer 2023 collection Marsèll Paradise will present the installation Transmitter/Receiver. A project by German artist Carsten Nicolai, on view from 15 April during Milan Art Week. Inspired by scientific reference systems, Nicolai explores mathematical patterns such as grids and codes, error and random structures, as well as the phenomenon of self-organization, while continually breaking down the boundaries between different artistic genres.
In Transmitter/Receiver he explores the uncertainties in art and science, reflecting on whether visual poetry could open a gateway to the unknown and make tangible dimensions otherwise inaccessible to human senses. The result is a site-specific installation that aims at making visible what it is not and at showing various facets of the perceptible world. A multi-sensory seismograph, which investigates the visual and material properties of the universe. Nicolai is interested in optical phenomena such as particles, light and colors. And Marsèll saw in his research the match for a collection that examines light and the colors of the summer horizon.
Originally produced for Haus der Kunst Munich, Nicolai’s installation is actually a machine controlled by a Geiger counter. A device for measuring radioactivity, which will be mounted directly on the roof of Marsèll Paradise. The counter detects terrestrial and extra-terrestrial radioactive particles – cosmic noise – and sends a corresponding electrical pulse to the machine, which modulates the pulse and translates those particles into sound, light and visual worlds.
Thalassa: Sogni 2021-2022
Between 1 and 4 April Marsèll Paradise will host Thalassa: Sogni 2021-2022. An installation featuring a collection of dreams narrated in cooperation with four Italian musicians and sound designers.
The exhibition is the result of a project entitled Telefono Thalassa, that Eugenio Fasulo, Italian creative consultant and art director, launched in 2021. For over a year a «voicemail for dreamers» registered people’s confidences about their dreams in a digital archive, among which sixteen were chosen to be remixed and reworked. Thus, they became something new, something «that completes and transcends the narrative».
Visitors will be able to listen to these dreams in a «secret and ‘soft’ room suspended in space and time», to make them enter in a dimension that resembles a dream. The audio experience is intended for Italian speakers only.
Marsèll Paradise
Marsèll Paradise – Via Privata Rezia, 2, Milan – is a concept store of Venetian brand Marsèll. Recently renovated, it features a bookshop with international magazines and books, including a selection of vintage publications. It’s also a polyfunctional event space, hosting exhibitions and shows organized in cooperation either with Marsèll’s creative headquarters, or with local artists and emerging talents.
