A good way to vet an art foundation is through its programming. Lafayette Anticipations has had Martine Syms, Issy Wood, Mark Leckey, Meriem Bennani, and was the venue Martin Margiela chose for his debut as an artist after retiring from his namesake house. His show (2022) was never formally titled and set up its entrance through the emergency exit to subject the audience before they saw anything. Visitors were taken through a labyrinth of his fixations: time, deterioration, hair, and a life-sized bus stop covered entirely in synthetic fur. Some critics questioned whether the work held up without the reputation behind it. For someone who built a career on anonymity, it's a fair question.
Margiela was on-site every month for two years pre-show, working with the R&D teams in the basement to ensure they achieved his exact vision. There are research teams at the artist's disposal, machines for digital milling, woodworking, screen printing which ensures every exhibition here is new. It was never Guillaume Houzé's (Galeries Lafayette) intention to compete with Fondation Louis Vuitton or the Bourse de Commerce but to build a place for making things. Production has been in the family since 1922, when they built a workshop called "The Mastery" for new designers.
Rem Koolhaas was hired as the starchitect. He's written extensively about shopping malls and how cities function. Anticipations was built around mobile platforms that allowed for the space to be reconfigurable for whatever the artist needs. There are 49 different configurations. The only other time he's built something like this was Maison à Bordeaux, a house with a moving platform at the middle allowing a couple whose husband used a wheelchair to experience and navigate three levels of their home. While building her show Total (2024), Martine Syms said that Koolhaas's presence was too strongly felt. She liked the idea of the moving floors but wished they could actually move while placed in different positions.
