Analog is fancy. History of TV STORE
Installation for the launch "This is Love" by Zadig & Voltaire, Paris 11th - 18/02/2020
Friday, 1:30 p.m. , Colombes, île de France. Gérard starts the conversation: I've been stocking televisions, video monitors, minitels since the 80s in this film studio. It was useful for the shootings. There must be a hundred of them upstairs... Today I want to make room in my warehouse, they are no longer in use. We then enter the warehouse, ready to discover what happens to be a real Alibaba cave for us, only cumbersome for the others... TV Store is an artistic installation project based on cathode ray televisions, launched in 2016 by Mathias Appadourai and Timothée Zourabichvili, presented for the first time during our "Soul Train Spirit" event on January 12, 2017 at the Café de la Presse (Paris 12e).
1st TV Store installation at Café de la Presse, Soul Train Spirit - 12.01.2017
I'll tell you briefly how this initiative went from being a simple experiment between enthusiasts to a trendy and original artistic installation that today seduces brands such as Zadig and Voltaire or Fabernovel.
When we talk about art and cathodic television, we all have in mind the works of the Korean artist, Nam Jun Paik. Raising television to the rank of social icon, mirror of our civilization, throughout the second half of the 20th century.
But what about today? The all-digital wave has overwhelmed our society. Let us ask ourselves then, what place is left for these so-called obsolete objects, whose quality and design have a real capacity to stand the test of time?
Television has long symbolized mass consumption better than any other object. On the one hand, it was the vehicle for it, by disseminating information on a massive scale, and on the other hand, it was an example of it, produced and consumed on a very large scale. It was at the centre of the individual's materialistic desire. Playing the role of social marker and window on the world. This relationship is just as true in our time with the mobile phone.
Art is a vector of emotions, messages, visions. What could be better than an object common to all to convey these messages?
In a world where obsolescence is programmed, and where new generations of products come out every year without responding to a real need, we have chosen a more sustainable development. All our televisions are second-hand objects, having had a life, a history, before they arrive in our hands. All our televisions were destined either to the dump, or to a slow and silent death in an attic, or a humid cellar... Like a "TV refuge" we welcome these antiques, we give them all the love they deserve, and we make them play/interact together to create an artistic, timeless and warm installation.
What could be better than a television to talk about mass consumption?
Our TV installations include many brands such as Sony, Philips, Samsung, Radiola, Bluesky, Sagem... Models of different sizes, colours and designs. These associations give a mixed, imperfect, organic visual result.
Poster of the piece “Vide”, Art-Spes collective - January 2020
We manufacture our own cables, mounting systems and experiment daily to broadcast simultaneous, separate, interactive, and/or multiple content on our screens. It is a challenge to mix the software possibilities of today with the technical and physical constraints of these screens of the last century. On the one hand there is technological archaeology, on the other hand there is futuristic experimentation.
This uncertainty, is the small human spark that is missing in the standardised and industrially designed scenographic installations delivered "plug & play": giant screen, 360 video projection, automated lighting effects... The handcrafted nature of our creations creates a bond of intimacy with the public.
Is our initiative isolated? Certainly not, TV Store is part of a new wave of artists exploring analogue technologies to create original installations or visuals. Let's mention for example the Japanese Ei Wada, the Swedish Johanna Tano or the Parisians Polygon and ≈𝖘𝖍𝖊𝖌𝖑𝖎𝖙𝖈𝖍𝖗. We recently met the latter, Camille Grigaut, living a few kilometres from our office in Val-de-Marne, France (94). Feel free to check out her excellent visual creations and analog installations on Instagram.
So is the Val de Marne a bastion of analog visual research on the outskirts of Paris? Indeed, it's not easy to store and move dozens of cathode ray TVs in a 20 m2 space under the Parisian roofs.
Between late 2019 and early 2020, our TVs were invited to the Vitesse Extreme free/underground party, to the launch of Zadig & Voltaire's fragrance "This is Love", to the Halloween celebration of La Felicita at Station F and to the headquarters of the digital company Fabernovel for their Christmas event.
Which leads us to say: analog is chic!
Like a chameleon, the TV Store is transformed and broadcasts video content according to the atmosphere and context of the event. One of the best examples is our very funky partnership with the Odela association. They transform a Citroën 2CV into a DJ booth - a veritable travelling disco chapel hosted by clubs and festivals to slide the diamonds from its turntables onto the best house and disco records from its vinyl trunk. And to dress up Madame? A custom-made screen dress designed by our TV Store! A modular installation broadcasting old TV programs related to this mythical car.
Here's a "making of" video immersed in our daily life:
Follow the adventure on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvstore.paris/
✍️ Adam Bidar, co-founder of PARISIAN SPIRIT.