Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012
Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei
1 June - 14 October 2012
The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games and won the prestigious RIBA Lubetkin Prize, will come together again in London in 2012 in a special development of the Serpentine's acclaimed annual commission. Open from June to October 2012, the Pavilion will be presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad. The Pavilion will be Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei's first collaborative built structure in the UK.
I visited the Serpentine early in July to see the Yoko Ono exhibition. The Pavilion is a very social space - you can buy a coffee from a kiosk and perch on one of the cork toadstools under the reflective pool. There were plenty of people there, just hanging out. The space is dark, and you are consciously underground, but cork is a warm and comforting material, so I felt cocooned.
ReplyDeleteThe Ono exhibition was called 'Into the Light' and she had several pieces in the grounds as well as in the gallery. Ono also use social media to encourage participation in her artworks - she is a peace activist and recently used electronic billboards in Times Square NY to promote the Peace One Day on 21st September.