The Detroit Institute of Arts’ Farnsworth Street underground car park, decommissioned in 2007, is the site of a proposal for a re-envisioned auto storage facility and public art vitrine. A glass structure, positioned on the south lawn at the access ramp to the underground parking, serves as a luminous architectural mediator between the public street level and the operational infrastructure below.
The vitrine hosts a continuously evolving array of contemporary installations organized around a fully functional car wash and presenting a hybrid encounter with an everyday Motor City-based service and a high art experience. This intervention encourages visitors to find beauty in the mundane and humor in the refined. Contemporary artists are invited to reimagine a vernacular experience, using pulleys, brushes, driers, car radios, and suds as fantastical elements, transforming the audience into protagonists of a technological performance.
By merging the transcendent with the familiar through immersive technologies like extended reality, digital projection, and holography, the arts vitrine challenges entrenched expectations associated with traditional art establishments, all while diversifying its audience. Connoisseurs will appreciate the curatorial excellence and the discovery of new works by globally recognized artists. Meanwhile, those new to contemporary art will find the experiential quality of the new media installations both intuitive and captivating, with their animated atmospherics and contextual whimsy.
Finally, unlike other large-scale immersive art experiences that dominate the art market, the installations in the Farnsworth arts vitrine are visible from street level, circumventing the issues of ticketing and commodification. This approach ensures that museum-quality content is also accessible as public art, inviting everyone to participate and engage with the installations.
2022
Midtown Detroit
Scale:
3,000 SF
Client:
The Detroit Cultural Center Association (DCCA)
Stakeholders:
Detroit Institute of Art
Principals:
Jean Louis Farges, Anya Sirota
Design Team:
Sarah Carter