Eight artists secretly built a mall apartment and lived there for four years

Back in 2003, eight artists embarked on an unusual creative experiment inside Providence Place, a shopping mall in Providence, Rhode Island. Led by artist Michael Townsend, the group secretly constructed a 750-square-foot apartment in an unused section of the shopping centre. They furnished the hidden space with everyday items, including a sofa, television and gaming console, and used it as a place to spend time together. The artists continued their secret project for approximately four years, staying there intermittently before mall security eventually discovered the apartment in 2007. What began as an experiment in reclaiming commercial space later became the subject of the documentary Secret Mall Apartment, directed by Jeremy Workman, and a community arts initiative involving the same shopping centre.How the secret mall apartment was createdThe project was organised by Michael Townsend and involved seven other artists: Adriana Valdez-Young, Colin Bliss, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, James Mercer, Emily Ustach and Jay Zehngebot. The group had connections to Providence’s creative community and had experienced the loss of artists’ spaces during redevelopment in the city. Their proje...