This year, architects and organizers have a special responsibility: 2012 will be held in the British capital under the sign of the "Olympics of Culture" and the London Festival, which brings together hundreds of exhibitions, concerts and performances. Since the temporary pavilion of the Serpentine Gallery is not only an architectural object, but also a platform for discussions on topics of contemporary art, this summer it will be required to "match" the level of the Olympic program.
11 previous pavilions were built by architects who (at that time) did not realize anything in England; Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have not been such for a long time: among their British buildings is the famous Tate Modern gallery. But in cooperation with Ai Weiwei, they will work there for the first time, so the fundamental condition of the gallery's long-term architectural program has been met. Recall that Swiss architects and Weiwei jointly created a project for the stadium of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, then did general chamber work. In the fact that the management of the Serpentine Gallery invited them exactly in 2012, one can see the transfer of the baton from one capital of the Summer Olympics to the next.
The authors of the project intend to investigate the "cultural layer". They plan to plunge 1.5 m into the ground: the remains of foundations, telephone cables and other communications found there will be announced as traces of the previous pavilions. They will be symbolized by 11 pillars, and the 12th will become a symbol of the current building. At a height of 1.5 m above ground level, these "columns" will support a roof that resembles the roofs over an archaeological site. At the same time, it will serve as a shallow body of water reflecting the changeable London sky. When it is necessary to use it as a stage or a dance floor, the water can be lowered into a specially dug depression with ground water always standing in it (it, like the “excavation”, is designed to remind of the invisible layers of the landscape).
The sponsored pavilion will stand in Kensington Gardens from June to October 2012.
N. F.
