Souvenir Shop: The Art of Selling
An exhibition by barbed project in collaboration with Crosby Studios

29 June – 5 July 2026

Crosby Studios Gallery
8 Rue des Beaux Arts
75006 Paris, France



Mass-produced, endlessly repeated, and often inexpensive, the typical souvenir tend to possess little value of its own. Yet it is collected, displayed, transported across borders, and preserved for years. Their significance lies not in craftsmanship, rarity, or material worth, but in their ability to represent a place, an experience, or a memory. 

Rather than documenting Paris itself, Souvenir Shop explores how places are translated into objects and how objects become carriers of cultural meaning. The souvenir emerges not simply as a reminder of a place, but as a mechanism through which experiences are packaged and preserved.

By collapsing the distinction between artwork and commodity, the exhibition turns browsing and purchasing into part of the work itself. Visitors encounter the objects simultaneously as exhibits and products, participating in the same systems of desire and exchange that the exhibition brings into view.

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