With the intervention of Chinese artist Song Dong, Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche reaffirms that it is more than just a department store. It is a space that has managed to transform itself into a fully-fledged cultural platform, able to engage with contemporary art without reducing it to mere decoration. Over the years, artists such as Ai Weiwei and Daniel Buren have passed through its walls, helping to redefine the very idea of a multibrand store as a place for experience, reflection, and a shared imaginary.
With the start of the new year, Le Bon Marché opens the eleventh chapter of its artistic programme with The Department Store of Everyday Life, an exhibition by Dong that unfolds as a site-specific operation. Open to visitors until 22 February, the project begins with the ordinary and moves toward universal themes such as memory, time, and consumption, turning everyday objects into powerful, layered narrative devices. A truly all-encompassing experience for Le Bon Marché’s visitors.
Song Dong’s intervention literally seeps into the department store’s space: the windows on Rue de Sèvres, Rue de Babylone, and Rue du Bac, the area beneath the vast glass canopy, and the second floor become immersive environments made of mirrored surfaces, lights, and reflections. Installations that multiply the gaze and invite you to lose yourself, as the artist’s personal stories intertwine with collective ones—and with the constant flow of everyday life that moves through Le Bon Marché.
And during the sale season, the exhibition makes the space even more appealing to the department store’s customers. Art, shopping, and architecture merge into a single experience, once again confirming how Le Bon Marché can capture the spirit of our time through art and culture—and not only through what it sells.
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