Though the use of everyday objects has become something of a fetish in contemporary art, Jorge Pardo’s most recent installation goes beyond mere fashion. As early on as the stairway leading up to the gallery, the visitor was greeted by Pardo’s “benches,” stools upholstered in orange fabric—works somewhere between Minimalist sculpture and ’70s furniture. They draw their intermediary position from the fact that they can be used both as ordinary utilitarian objects-in fact, for the duration of this exhibition, the gallery’s regular chairs were replaced by Pardo’s stools—and as art objects. Their

For his recent project, Philippe Parreno asked his dealers to invite friends and acquaintances to spend all of May Day working in the gallery. The room contained various tools: projectors, a screen, an ironing board and an iron, pieces of fabric and a sewing machine, a large quantity of small T-shirts, electrical materials, two video cameras, two circular tables, and a series of plush teddy bears. The artist asked those present to complete certain tasks, such as stamping the words “My first secret” on the small T-shirts and putting these shirts on the teddy bears, or making a gigantic T-shirt