Have you already seen the smallest gallery in Shoreditch? It’s located in Redchurch Street and it’s barely bigger than a broom closet. But it’s not about the size, it’s about what you do with it: Punk legend Bruno Wizard has already played in the space and the gallery provides young artists the opportunity to promote their art.
I must say it’s the first time I have had a conversation for more than a half hour about a 2 square metres space, but it was definitely worth the time. Brooom is an exciting new project in Shoreditch, which is owned by two Italians, creative director Frida Affer and advertising and PR-man Magid Motamedian. Of course the big question is: why on earth would you make a gallery this small?
Cool idea
“We realised that most of the artists nowadays have a lot of advertising problems,” explains Motamedian. “What we then realised is that if the idea is cool, you don’t need so much space. If we would rent a small place it would also not cost much for the artists to rent the space from us. Because it’s such a small space you will also have less other costs, like costs of paint frames for instance.”
In fact the owners don’t even look at it as a gallery, but more as an advertising space for artists. “We want to be on the streets and propose new artists and brands and every kind of business that wants to be involved in the advertising process,” tells Affer. “We don’t want to promote commercial projects, but artistic ones. It’s on the street and everyone can see it; it’s like a 24/7 banner.”
Videos, installations and performances
The idea is just like television. You have a certain time to convince your audience of your product. Artists can make a one-minute video and hand it over to the Brooom team, so they can play it on a big screen. Your video will be showed once every ten minutes, 144 times per day and 1080 times per week. This costs £80 per week.
For £300 you can also rent the entire stage for yourself for one week. In that week you can basically do whatever you want with it; use the video projector, make an installation or perform something yourself. “Last week we had Bruno Wizard (The Homosexuals, The Rejects),” Affor tells us. “He was promoting his documentary for the East End Film Festival over here, and he was playing in our space. He put a lot of clothes and pillows in there, so it looked like his home for a week, which was a very fun thing to see.”
Brooom in Shoreditch
The gallery has already been in Shoreditch for two successful months yet and the creators of the project hope that it will be there for the long term. They also have ideas about expanding the project to other big cities in different countries. However, they started in Shoreditch, so why did they kick off the project here? “I think it’s a very good environment to be in,” Affer explains. “There are a lot of things happening over here. If you would start up this project in The City, then you would have a lot of people during the day, but in the night it will be dead. Shoreditch is better, because it has a vibrant nightlife.”
“The people are completely different from the rest of London,” adds Motamedian. “It still has a little bit a hippy style, but not as hippy like the people in Hackney, because it’s also a little bit chic. Especially Redchurch Street is a very nice area. We think that what we are doing now gives a new energy to that street. There was a period when it was going a little bit down, because of the crisis. Because of that suddenly a lot of the art space was rented to companies for other purposes than art, because it became too expensive for artists. Our project is a perfect solution for this problem.”
Do you want to know what the buzz is about? Go to 81b Redchurch Street and pay a visit to the smallest gallery in Shoreditch. You can also check out their website!
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