Eva Merz
Local Commerce:
Empty Shop/Modern Monument
Eva Merz was invited for a four months residency in 2003 to come to Huntly to provide a reaction to the increasing number of empty shops in the rural town.
The project focused on a grocer’s shop from the 1920s which had been empty since the mid-eighties. Eva Merz preserved the shop by declaring it a ‘Modern Monument’. This was expressed through a performance on the 29th April 03 when the artist climbed up to the roof of the shop, swinging a flag with the words EMPTY SHOP. This declaration of the first empty shop monument in Britain was featured both by BBC Scotland and Grampian TV. The artist then produced a series of limited edition souvenirs of the empty shop, like mugs, lighters, mouse-mats and t-shirts. Those were exhibited and for sale at the Brander Museum in Huntly and at Peacock visual arts in Aberdeen. The publication is the final outcome of the project. It contains images by the artist, an essay by Curator, Claudia Zeiske and is complemented by five interviews with local business people focusing on local economics.
Subsequent to her residency, Eva Merz embarked on two other projects: Space/Retail/Magic and Country Living.
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