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Hello A4 Store
Store 3 October 2019
Event photograph from the ‘Hello proto~’ launch of A4’s Proto~ museum shop. In the middle, a cabinet is lined with various artworks and ephemera. On the top shelf, Never Read the News Alone’s vinyl EP ‘Kalahari Elegy.’ To the middle, Christian Nerf’s ‘Polite Force’ caps. To the bottom, David Goldblatt’s photo-book ‘Particulars.’
Launch: A4 Store, October 3, 2019. Image courtesy of A4 Arts Foundation.
Title Hello A4 Store Dates 3 October 2019 Location Ground Floor Tagline Launch of A4 Store, the shop at A4. Credits

Coordinators:
Hamzeh Alfarahneh
Day Mthembu

A4 Store is the shop at A4 Arts Foundation. Playing with the premise of the museum shop, the Store collects tangible traces of art’s immaterial offerings, assembling thoughts, propositions, off-cuts and fragments. Positioned between the artist’s studio and an archive of projects at A4, the Store is a place where practitioners and publics meet. Gathering together original pieces, art books, vinyl, and contemporary artefacts, the Store is a space to collect, discover and interact with artistic practices and processes.

What does it mean to play with the idea of the ‘museum shop’?
The museum shop is a place to gather artefacts that ground the intangible experience of being around artworks in a museum. Call them souvenirs, totems, tshatshkes or memorabilia – at the Store, these things become a way to incarnate the strange, enlivening, disconcerting, even enlightening moments ‘looking at art’ inspires. 

The kinds of things that we keep at the Store are remnants that speak to these experiences. The shop is interested in fragments, offcuts, leftovers, proposals and propositions from around the artist’s studio that shed light on artistic processes and practices. Investing in working artists, the Store explores what happens behind the scenes and shares these processes in store. At the same time, the shop collects an object archive of the events, residencies and exhibitions at A4. 

What kinds of things does the Store stock?
1. The Specialised Selection includes artworks, design objects, rare and unusual things, small editions, as well as maquettes and remnants of processes.
2. The Utility Selection consists of stationery, postcards, keepsakes, and workable, usable items. 
3. We also trade rare books, as well as new publications, phonograph records (LPs), and zines.

What can I expect from the Store?
The Store is a place to become acquainted with young and emerging artists, explore studio environments, and collect and become a custodian of small artworks and curious objects. Every purchase at the Store ensures that you become a mini-patron of the arts, as your contribution goes directly towards A4 Arts Foundation’s mandate to support the arts ecology – offering our services to practitioners and providing access to publics.

Launch: A4 Store, October 3, 2019. Image courtesy of A4 Arts Foundation.
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