Tom Sachs's 'Exchange' Interactive Exhibit

Yesterday, in Paris, France, artist Tom Sachs’s latest visitor packed interactive exhibit came to a close after a full 24-hours of run time. What originally drew me to this event was the artistry that Sachs’s displayed. Back in January, I had seen a full-sized painting of Sachs’s take on the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups wrapper on his Instagram which I had really liked for its handmade appearance, rough edges, and imperfect font/character design. With this interactive performance, Sachs’s didn’t just display his work, he created an event for people to feel like they were part of the performance. In much of Sachs’s work, he explores societal themes like the functions of normative systems and how they form the infrastructure for living out daily life.?

The basis of the event was that participants could enter or exit the “marketplace” anytime within a 24-hour window of the exhibit being open. Upon arrival they were given the option to exchange Euros for “shell money” (one of the first forms of currency) in the form of porcelain beads that they can later exchange for metal Reese’s “R” tokens. With these Reese’s tokens participants can purchase Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup candies with the Sachs designed wrapper. Within the candy wrapper, there is a QR code for a new digital currency dubbed ‘Chocolate Bullion’ (CHB), which will have real world value even after the exhibit concludes. To make things even more interesting, every hour throughout the duration of the exhibit, exchange rates for Beads, Metal Coins, Candy Bars, and CHB will be updated by Sachs’s team, changing the whole way the marketplace for coins and chocolate functions. There will also be “black market” where under-the-table trades can be made. The present underlying societal theme within this exhibit is whether cryptocurrency represents a decentralized free forming currency of the future or feeding a self-serving agenda through greed.

I think the idea of an interactive exhibit is really cool because to me it represents a cross between business, art, and culture. These events provide participants and customers with both an entertaining and informative experience. Creating these experiences as a marketer is something that is very valuable when it comes to branding and PR, as well as setting yourself apart from your competition. Through events like these you can showcase the business you do, while doing so through unique, creative mediums leaving a lasting impression on your audience.