Temporary space at 9, rue du Plâtre

"They’re not really spaces... rather an accumulation of hastily implemented disposable modernities. And these are the mandatory ingredients for making spaces anew: there is no point throwing everything away or adding anything whatsoever." — ROTOR's work notes, 2013 The first exchanges concerned Prolégomènes (Prolegomena), a multi-day event designed to occupy part of 9 rue du Plâtre, the Lafayette Anticipations’s future headquarters. A reversal occurred when ROTOR suggested getting ahead of the game: why not go beyond questions of a few days and a few spaces? Why not use the temporary status of the building as a tool to immediately house alternative productions, to embrace fragile occupations, to be generous without depriving ourselves? Why not use the building to bring Lafayette Anticipations, Fondation d'entreprise Galeries Lafayette to life in the autumn of 2013? ROTOR's intervention filled the whole building during the period preceding its complete transformation by OMA, Rem Koolhaas’s architectural firm. What used to be a closed, empty, outdated space in abeyance was subjected to a series of adjustments. The project chose to confront several issues: How does one enable the opening of a building that has undergone decades of gradual compartmentalisation? How can one get a fresh perspective on spaces that have been stifled by aesthetic connotations and previous uses? How can one take advantage of this ephemeral situation’s limited material data? This installation was led by Renaud Haerlingen, Tristan Boniver, Benjamin Lasserre and Maarten Gielen in collaboration with Lola Bazin, Jean-François Wyseur, Tim Rottiers, Muhammed Karabelen, Daniel van Drimmelen, Camille Viérin, Iveta Bláhová and Adeline Van Hoof.