Our Teach Yourself series wouldn’t be complete without a look into the many museums, galleries and institutions that form the crux of the art industry. Part Two focuses on the Summer Pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery, London.
The Serpentine, an internationally acclaimed gallery that focuses on contemporary and modern art, is situated in London’s historic and beautiful Kensington Gardens. The gallery is renowned for its innovative contemporary exhibition selection and educational programmes. Not to mention that their Co-Director is Hans Ulrich Obrist who you’ll remember from our Top Five Art Books.
The gallery has held exhibitions for an array of art world superstars including Yoko Ono, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gerhard Richter, Gustav Metzger and Yayoi Kusama. Always evolving, the Serpentine is set to open a new space in September – The Serpentine Sackler Gallery – designed by the epic Zaha Hadid.
Part of the Serpentine’s exhibition schedule is its much anticipated Summer Pavilion – an annually commissioned project that provides a unique showcase for contemporary architectural practice. World renowned artists and architectures are invited to design a temporary structure – or pavilion – that sits on the gallery’s front lawn. The project is supported by an educational programme often including film screenings, talks and lectures.
This year’s pavilion is designed by award winning Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Occupying some 350 square-metres, Sou Fujimoto’s delicate, latticed structure of 20mm steel poles has a lightweight and semi- transparent appearance that allows it to blend, cloud-like into the landscape. The architect described his pavilion as if it were “mist rising from the undulations of the park. From certain vantage points, the Pavilion will appear to merge with the classical structure of the Serpentine Gallery, with visitors suspended in space”. Recently, British studio United Visual Artists used LED lights to create an ‘electrical storm inside the structure”. Click HERE for the video.
Here are some of the other thirteen pavilions that have graced the gallery’s lawn since the project’s inauguration in 2000.
Pavilion 2012 – Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei
Pavilion 2010 – Designed by Jean Nouvel
Pavilion 2001 – Designed by Daniel Libeskind
Add to your coffee table collection with Taschen’s “Summer at the Serpentine. Ten years of temporary pavilions by top architects”.
The Bubblist 