Monoprix in Grasse opened an exhibition ahead of its move
Until the end of October, Monoprix in Grasse is showing “Martelly / Monoprix: a shared history” — a hundred square metres of photographs, archive documents and objects about a shop that has held the town centre for more than sixty years and moves to a new site this autumn.
A hundred square metres of memory
The exhibition was opened with a vernissage on 31 July on Place Martelly, and it runs until the end of October right on the shop’s ground floor. On 100 m² there are photographs, city archive documents, objects from different eras and recorded memories — a story of more than six decades of commercial, social and architectural life in the very heart of Grasse. In autumn Monoprix will move — not far, only about fifty metres, to the renovated Martelly quarter, reports Nice-Matin.
Three dates in the store’s history
- 1959 — the opening in the building of the former Imbert printing house, where the city theatre operates today.
- 1971 — the move to the Cordeliers site and the bold architecture of Michel Ouchakoff.
- 1998 — the unrealised Jasmin shopping-centre project, which already then foretold the redevelopment of the Martelly quarter.
«We knew their habits, sizes and tastes»
Half of the exhibition is made up of the voices of those who worked and shopped here. Blanche Allary attended the vernissage as a former employee: in the 1970s she was in charge of the underwear department. «It was a completely special world. Women came for advice, for attention. We knew their habits, sizes and tastes. The store was a warm place, almost like family,» she recalls in a conversation with Nice-Matin.
Myriam Compiani remembers Monoprix at its previous location — where Grasse’s theatre now stands: «I remember the escalator, it was magic. We rode up and down like on a carousel. For me Monoprix was modernity, light, colour. A small world within the city».
Street art and shared memory
Street artist Nasty added a contemporary note to the exhibition — his work links the store’s heritage with today’s art. Grasse’s mayor Jérôme Viaud sees the exhibition as a gesture towards the future: «We are showing that Grasse’s future can be built by restoring heritage and adapting the city centre to climate challenges, — and at the same time honouring our shared memory».
Grasse has been in the spotlight this summer: a week earlier it hosted Thylane Blondeau’s wedding, and we covered what keeps local crafts and scents alive in the feature “Masters of the French Riviera”.
— — —
Photo: Atlantic Ambience / Pexels