From Retail Heaven to Modern Art Paradise: Ai Weiwei’s “Er Xi” @ Le Bon Marché, Paris |

In a previous post we looked at brands including the work of artists in a window shop or sponsoring small art exhibitions in dedicated art spaces located inside large boutiques. The question at the end of that post was very simple – is this patronage or brand identity in expansion?

Somehow the same question returned when Monday night Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei opened in Paris what could be defined as his largest exhibition in the French capital so far, an event that also marked his return there since his first visit in 2003. The exhibition is not installed in an established museum or gallery, but in a department store: indeed Weiwei took over the windows, the atrium, the gallery space and the selfie wall of Le Bon Marché, the department store owned by LVMH.

The show – entitled "Er Xi" ("Child's Play", until 20th February) – moved from the text "Shan Hai Jing" (Classic of Mountains and Seas). Dating back as far as the 4th century BC, the traditional Chinese children's tales revolving around mythological creatures resembling birds, fish and dragons.

The fables were passed down from generation to generation, though, due to censorship laws imposed by the People's Republic of China that forbade old and imaginary stories, Weiwei's generation and the following ones weren't exposed to them.

The Shan Hai Jing characters were transformed into beautiful and ethereal kites of different sizes, hand-constructed from bamboo and lightweight white silk (some of the sculptures in the windows were left uncovered and reveal their bamboo bones) with the help of kite makers from the Shandong Province.

The creatures installed in the ten windows that line the street use Chinese myths and symbolism from art movements to tell at times an autobiographical story and reference contemporary and historical events, and the artist's own works such as "Surveilance Camera" (2006) and "Brain Inflation" (2009). There are also hints at the work of Ai Weiwei's father, Chinese poet and activist Ai Qing, interned in labour camps for the first 20 years of his son's life.

In one of the windows the artist tackles freedom and comments about his passport, confiscated a few years ago by the Chinese authorities and returned to him last July: in "With Passport" he represents himself as a "Door God", a traditional Chinese figure protecting the temple, though the artist feels more like a freedom of speech guardian. Further mythological creatures are scattered above the cosmetics department, while a 20-metre-long dragon can be admired on the ground floor.

The artist is well-known for exhibiting outside traditional spaces and this show could therefore be considered as perfectly being in line with his choices. Yet, though attracting different audiences from museum goers, and ensuring the magic of Ai Weiwei's mythological creatures spreads around the urban spaces (some installations are visible from the street and the windows guarantee many photo opportunities) of a city that only two months ago was wounded by a barbaric act of terrorism, you still feel there is something unreconcilable in these installations, especially when you consider the space surrounding them.

Through his works Ai Weiwei often speaks about freedom and his personal condition and he has recently focused on the refugee crisis with migrants arriving on the Greek Island of Lesbos (where he has also set up a studio), but his art in this case is surrounded by an artificial luxury world populated by fashion houses seductively advertising expensive products that widen the gap between the haves and the have nots. Weiwei doesn't seem to be too worried about this clash, but he is attracted by the dichotomy between the meaning of a work of art and the consumers' meaningless and unquenchable thirst and desire for expensive products such as the cosmetics and fragrances that currently form a temporary background to his pieces.

Maybe Ai Weiwei holds the key to the future of this art and fashion connection and the solution stands in not bothering about it or in avoid reading too much between the lines, even though it is somehow hard not to do so, especially when you think that no museum in Paris invited him to do any exhibitions, but Le Bon Marché did. This is actually something that should make all people wonder if the global cuts to culture funds (justified with major investments in the defence sector) will eventually leave public museums with smaller budgets and private entities with pockets big enough to organise only the shows they want to see (another piece by Ai Weiwei, one of his tree sculptures, will be on display from the end of January at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, but rumours say one kite from Le Bon Marché will be acquired by the Foundation and displayed there at the end of the department store event).

You could argue that in a way there is a lot of irony in this Bon Marché event: Émile Zola described a department store in The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames), modelled on Le Bon Marché and narrating its "White Sale" with grand words. Bizarrelly, Ai Weiwei's "Er Xi" coincides with the current white sales at department store and the works included – installed over 10 days by a team wearing white branded jumpsuits by Le Bon Marché – are mainly white.

You can bet that these art and fashion events and collaborations will definitely intensify, in the meantime, for what regards the Ai Weiwei installations, surely fashionistas passing through Paris for the menswear shows (starting today) and the Haute Couture presentations (starting on Sunday) will stop for a selfie opportunity at Le Bon Marché and maybe get in and buy some luxury products and a tote bag with the exhibition logo (a fish with ten tails and the head of the artist; 15 Euros).

In Nouveaux Tableaux de Paris (1828), the Parisian arcades were described as magical places full of objects that, through their monumental architectures and abundance of goods on sale, showed "that industry is the rival of the arts". Who knows, maybe department stores rather than rivals of the arts are the forerunners of future museums and one day we will be collectively shopping next to a restored masterpiece from the Renaissance or a dinosaur skeleton. For the time being, though, get your arty selfie opportunity at Le Bon Marché or just enjoy watching the fashion peacocks doing so. Yes, that may not be so arty, but it could be an interesting exercise from an anthropological and social point of view.