Last year, when Cadillac moved its headquarters from an iconic Detroit location — the Eero Saarinen–designed G.M. Technical Center — to the trendy New York City neighborhood of SoHo, it gave the automobile giant a chance to reform the image and mission of this historic American manufacturer.
In the Gensler-designed Cadillac House, an experiential brand center within a converted warehouse stands as an exemplar for spaces and objects of the future. Behind a heavy limestone façade incised with terraces and just inside the entrance, the 12,000-square-foot center presents Cadillacs lined up in a runway-like atrium where a strip of terrazzo forms the stage within a polished concrete floor. It is framed by existing columns now holding large digital screens where colorful announcements indicate to the visitor the latest happenings at the space. Flanking the runway, a café sits at the heart of a diverse arrangement of tables, available to anyone who may need a space to work. Meetings can even take place in the comfortable leather-upholstered seats of the luxury automobiles showcased in the space.
At the back of the named Cadillac House, a transitory retail space stands opposite a gallery space curated through a collaboration between Cadillac and transmedia company Visionaire. These days, the gallery is hosting Toiletpaper Paradise, an installation showcasing the joint collection produced by Italian furniture companies Seletti and Gufram with designs imagined by Toiletpaper’s Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.
Image courtesy of Plamen Petkov
Giant tomato-stained spaghetti wallpaper covers the walls and floor, while furniture items and tableware objects set up an imagined living space where the visitor is free to interact. Entering the surreal set is like stepping into the color-saturated brains of the artists, where images of animals, food and other common objects become the primary tools to reimagining timeless Seletti items.
The space is a psychedelic assemblage of objects, many of which are for sale at various price ranges. It is a ground for play, where age is forgotten and design becomes accessible to all. Amidst the displayed Seletti collection, pieces of reclaimed vintage furniture contrast with the fantastical objects, which include area rugs, plates and cups stamped with frog hamburgers, mysterious body parts and other miscellaneous items.
Image courtesy of Plamen Petkov
Having taken over spaces like the Galerie Perrotin or the Galeries Lafayette in Paris and setting up popup shops in Milan and during Art Basel in Miami, the site-specific installation that Seletti and Toiletpaper have created has been much celebrated since it landed in the brand-new Cadillac House space, exciting the creative New York public with its instagrammable frames and playful take on design and household utility items.
Image courtesy of Plamen Petkov
The product of many highly talented creative minds at work, the installation at Cadillac House is pure eccentricity and sets up a dreamlike stage praising the benefits of collaboration across industry and medium. It is no coincidence that it would end up in a space where a renowned automobile brand is striving to reimagine the boundaries of car commerce and the social and cultural possibilities of the traditional showroom.
Check out the full Seletti wears Toiletpaper collection here and make sure to go experience the full Visionaire installation at the Cadillac House before it closes on April 12.
Cover image courtesy of Plamen Petkov