Serpentine Pavilion 2014 (June 26 - October 19)

This year's temporary pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery is a rather controversial one. Inspired by Oscar Wilde's novella The Selfish Giant, architect Smiljan Radić has created a bizarre, semi-translucent, cylindrical, semi-translucent fiberglass structure built around a patio that gives the whole volume a floating sensation. The pavilion is a dialog between: opacity and transparency, interior and exterior, sturdiness and lightness, solid and fragile. The zigzag lighting fixtures, the translucent interior and the sharply cut angular window create a flexible, versatile, multifunctional space, Smiljan Radić managing to simultaneously close and open this structure to explore its relationship with its neighborhoods.

The pavilion seems unusual in that it cannot be pigeon-holed into a style or associated with a particular era, with some critics comparing it to a yurt or a grotto, a lantern or an egg.

Architect Smiljan Radić is known both for his buildings: the Regional Theater - Concepción, Chile 2011, Mestizo Restaurant - Santiago, Chile, Vik Winery - Millahue, Chile, Copper 2 House - Talca, Chile, 2004-2005, Pite House - Papudo, Chile, 2003-2005, A House - Vilches, Chile, 2008, Right Angle Poem House - Vilches, Chile, 2010-2012; and for his architectural exhibitions: Wardrobe and Mattress - Maison Hermes, Tokyo, Japan, 2013, Bus Stop - Kumbranch, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria, 2013, Ilustracion - AFA Gallery, Santiago, Chile, 2013, An Orange Tree Noise - Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan, 2012, Global Ends - Ma Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2010 and People Meet in Architecture at the Venice International Architecture Biennale, 2010.

http://www.serpentinegalleries.org

Photo: Bogdan Iurașcu