Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion 2007 by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen
The Serpentine Gallery has invited the world-famous artist Olafur Eliasson and the distinguished Norwegian architect Kjetil Thorsen, of the architectural practice Snøhetta, to collaborate on the 2007 Pavilion. The unique look of the pavilion has now been unveiled. The Pavilion will act as a “laboratory’” every Friday night with artists, architects, academics and scientists leading a series of public experiments.
This timberclad structure resembles a spinning top and brings a dramatic vertical dimension to the traditional single-level pavilion. A wide spiraling ramp makes two complete turns, allowing visitors to ascend from the Gallery lawn to the highest point for views across Kensington Gardens as well as a bird’s eye view of the chamber below.
Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen said: Our collaboration on the Serpentine Pavilion 2007 is defined by our mutual focus on the experience of space and on temporarily as a constitutive element of spaces, private or public. We both work within a field of spatial experimentation that render conceptual differences between art and architecture superfluous.
