Project notes:
This project was a proposal for a promotional activation idea for the summer exhibition Gauguin Portraits at the National Gallery of Canada. To generat a buzz around the exhibition the NGC’s needed to be outdoor and let the people know what was happening in terms of exhibition for the summer. The proposal was to built a pop-up mango stand for an afternoon, specificaly in an unconventional location to get the attention. Just walk by the Mango stand and you get your bagged mango with a chance to win an exhibition package. To claim the price the winners had to share the picture on social media and tag it with the exhibition hashtag.
A simple idea to create a an experience and at the same time to bring in focus the objects inserted in Gauguin’s portraits. As each of the object was purposely placed in Gauguin’s portraits by the artist for a specific reason. In the present case it was the mango. A fruit that Gauguin discovered and hate everyday on his travel to Martinique.
To capture France’s proud tradition, staging with activation actors wearing navy and white striped shirt, a beret and a mango (to replace the baguette) was a must.
La marinière “the simple striped tee-shirt” became a fashion statement at the beginning of the 20th century just when Gauguin past away. But the stripped shirt was well worn before then as we can see on one of Gauguin auto portraits wearing a stipped red and dark blue shirt. Today, many French man and woman still wear the shirt, which has become a must for any casual, preppy wardrobe. We all like stripy t-shirt and this one's a much-loved classic.
The use of an outdoors hat had for main purpace to protect the hair, eyes, and skin from the sun. Using a regular cap was absolutely not an option. Le béret is a popular flat hat that's worn mainly in the Béarnaise countryside, located in the French Pyrenees. Although traditionally black, the Basque region uses a red version. For us using a ligh yellow colour for the summer was a good idea. Also two of the four colours used for the promotion of Gauguin’s Portraits was yellow and red.
–
The popup stand used for the activation had to be easy to takedown and quick to install as we were hopping to have it only for an afternoon but every second day over the course of 3 weeks. The stand was made of several crates (some red with the NGC brand and some with an aged finish), (2) Gauguin reproduction in frames and installed back to back, (2) display unit, (2) Promotional A-Frames, and thousands of Mango bags.
