Serpentine Pavilion 2014
A semi-translucent, cylindrical structure that resembled a shell and rested on large quarry stones, the 2014 Pavilion occupied 350 square metres of the Serpentine’s lawn and was home to and inspiration for the Park Nights series of events.
Smiljan Radić’s design for a temporary Pavilion has its roots in the architect’s earlier work, particularly The Castle of the Selfish Giant, a papier-mâché model inspired by the Oscar Wilde story, and the Restaurant Mestizo – part of which is supported by large boulders.
Designed as a flexible, multi-purpose social space, the Pavilion had a café sited inside. Visitors were encouraged to enter and interact with the structure in different ways throughout its four-month tenure in the Park. On selected Friday nights, between July and September, the Pavilion became the stage for the Galleries’ Park Nights series, sponsored by COS: eight site-specific events that brought together art, poetry, music, film, literature and theory, including three new commissions by emerging artists Lina Lapelyte, Hannah Perry and Heather Phillipson.