JRP | Ringier Unveils Inspiring New Zurich Art Bookstore

DATE: 1/22/2013 | BY ELISA LESHOWITZ

In the fall of 2012, sophisticated Zurich-based art book publisher JRP | RINGIER opened new editorial offices and a brand new, and equally sophisticated, art bookstore in the Löwenbräu art complex, located in the heart of Zurich's cultural district.

Swiss architects Arge Löwenbräuareal renovated a former industrial brewery building that also houses the Migros Museum; the Kunsthalle Zurich; and galleries such as Hauser & Wirth and Eva Presenhuber, as well as Parkett Editions.
Lionel Bovier, Director of JRP | RINGIER, said of the new space, "It felt right to move to the Löwenbräu complex...as it was, since its formation in the mid-1990s, the most dynamic place for contemporary art in Switzerland. With its extension and renovation, it's promising even more in terms of number of actors, quality of exhibitions, and diversity of events. The second incentive was our wish to preserve the existence of the Kunstgriff bookshop, a long-time favorite of ours and the last remaining specialized shop in contemporary art books in Zurich"
The Kunstgriff bookshop has now been incorporated into JRP | RINGIER, as it had been threatened to close due to an increase in rent. Now the bookstore has grown to 1000 square feet in the new space. Bovier states, "We wanted Kunstgriff to retain its diversity of inventory, its forward-looking taste for contemporary culture, i.e. to keep it the bookshop as it was! It obviously offers us now a direct interface with an audience and a selling point in Switzerland, but it is first and foremost the biggest store in Switzerland dedicated to contemporary art."