Arts University Bournemouth (AUB) is pleased to announce that MA Fine Art alumna and local artist, Lisa Moro, will be showcasing her multi-layered installation and audio project, The Shopkeepers, across two upcoming exhibitions in Bournemouth as part of this year's Arts by the Sea Festival.
The innovative speculative fiction project will first feature as part of the collaborative town centre exhibition in Jessica Toale MP’s pop-up space on Tuesday 22 September, before appearing with AUB in the Lower Gardens on Saturday 26 September.
Supported using public funding by Arts Council England, The Shopkeepers is an evolving speculative fiction and archive project created by Lisa that explores memory, commerce, and forgotten spaces along Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth.
Presented as a record of ‘transactions that may not have happened’, the project documents a series of surreal and uncanny establishments such as The Temporary Sign Shop, The Béchamel Parlour, Hats for Rats, and Bournemouth '85 Travel Ltd that exist only through augmented reality, physical relics, complaints, and an audio archive entitled Beneath the Counter.
The project blends physical signage, sound, and interactive digital elements to invite audiences to reflect on the changing face of high streets, community heritage and urban storytelling.
“Old Christchurch Road has such a rich, layered history, but like many high streets, it’s also a place undergoing constant shift and reinvention,” says Lisa.
“Exhibiting The Shopkeepers directly on the street where these stories are anchored, and bridging that with the town centre pop-up and Arts by the Sea, allows us to re-examine everyday spaces with a sense of wonder. It’s about inviting the community to look beneath the surface of the shops we walk past every day and imagine the forgotten, surreal, or hidden transactions that linger in our collective memory.”
The Shopkeepers will open at Jessica Toale's pop-up space at 6 Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, from Tuesday 22 September, before a live installation in Bournemouth's Lower Gardens on Saturday 26 September.
