The annual summer pavilion at london's Serpentine Gallery will be given a spiritual side. Designed by Chicago artist Theaster Gates, this year's summer pavilion is a cylindrical "Black Chapel." Taking inspiration from a kiln in Stoke, England, Gates will ascend to a dome with an eye-like cutout in the middle, illuminating the circular space for introspection and musical performances.
"Coming out of COVID-19, I thought about how nice it would be to have a quiet place," Gates says, "a place for people to live with their own minds, for people to rest, a holy church for people to sit down and meditate." It should give you the ability to touch your own heart. ”
Renderings of the "Black Church" 2022 Theaster Gates Studio
The makeshift Pantheon, designed by Gates with the help of Adjaye Associates, has a large bronze bell at the entrance that was salvaged from The St Laurence church south of Chicago, which was demolished in 2014. The bronze bell will be used to announce the start of concerts and other events throughout the project, including performances by Gates and his band, Black Monks, according to the plan.
"I wanted this to be a church that housed new music," Gates introduced, "the gospel, alternative jazz, avant-garde music, the history of black Music in England, Gregory chants and Benedictine chants — everything my band and I loved." The details of the project have yet to be confirmed, but Gates said he was speaking with Corinne Bailey Rae, the Otolith Group and hoebe Collings-James, hoping to invite "London's great cabarets and choirs". Gates also wanted to record in the space and produce vinyl records with his label.
Sistre Gates
London's Serpentine Gallery commissions a group of architects each year to design the summer pavilion, and this temporary experimental structure in Kensington Gardens has become one of the most prestigious architectural events of the year. For two decades, architects have created "flash mob" spaces here where people pinpoint current events or take selfies. While artists have also been involved in collaborations at london's Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in the past – including 2007 artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen – this is the first time the artist's name appears in the first place (Ajayeh is responsible for "providing architectural support"). Born in Chicago in 1973, Gates holds a master's degree in urban planning, ceramics, and religious studies, and currently lives and works in Chicago. The choice of Gates was postponed by a year, which coincided with his multi-museum project in London, Question of Clay, which was held simultaneously at the V&A, Whitechapel Gallery, White Cube and others, exploring the history, craftsmanship and ethnic politics of ceramics.
"I've always wanted to end the clay project with this container-like structure," said Gates, who had planned to build a pavilion out of bricks to echo his 2017 project at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, "Black Vessel for a Saint," but it proved too costly and less environmentally friendly for the temporary structure. Instead, today's pavilion will consist of slender timber and steel trusses that will form a circle of columns that support a 16-meter-diameter roof, with some trusses radiating outward from 11-meter-high eye holes, like spokes of bicycle wheels. From the pictures, the exhibition hall gives people the feeling of an industrial space, like being in a miniature gas storage tank.
The kiln of Stoke, England, was inspired by Sisster Gates
The building frame will be covered with plywood and waterproof film — the same as peter Zumthor's mysterious pavilion designed in 2011 — and the lower parts will be lined with black planks that visually anchor the structure to the ground from the inside out. Shallow ramps are placed in the center to guide people in and out, and a large separate wall inside separates the coffee area from contemplation and performance.
"When it rains, it becomes a sight!" Gates said, "It's just part of its beauty. I like the notion that nature enters the space. We also have an excellent drainage system. ”
Gates said the name of the Black Church points to the role that sacred music and art have played in his practice. It's also a echo of the 2019 project of the same name he created at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, commissioned by the late curator Okwui Enwezor, who also invited Gates to participate in the 2015 Venice Biennale.
"At first I brought the bell of St. Lawrence's Church to Venice," Gates said, "and now I bring it to London as a tribute to Nvizor and to the great people who have encouraged me in my life to make connections with art, architecture and religion." ”
Gates bought 14,000 books from a bookstore in Chicago facing closure and turned them into a library
The artist was no stranger to architecture, having built several vacant buildings south of Chicago, transforming them into cultural institutions that house archival collections. In the act of "collecting space", Gates's identity has been switched from an artist to a planner and activist of the city. In 2006, Gates bought an abandoned candy store in Chicago's Grand Cross neighborhood for $130,000, and a few years later, a vacant lot next door. Thanks to his professional background in urban planning, Gates began work on the renovation of the house and then expanded to update the entire area. In such a process, Gates needs to coordinate, collaborate, and share space with various people. He is now involved in the Liverpool International Slavery Museum project with Ajaye and Asif Khan and is also a consultant at President Ma the Barack Obama Presidential Center in south Chicago.
"As artists, we're new to architecture," Gates admits, "and because of that, we're sometimes able to make different suggestions." I examined how African Americans exploited modernism and added ancient colors and patterns to create this mixture of design philosophies. ”
Gates sees the Serpentine Gallery's summer pavilion as the beginning of a new architectural exploration, "and I feel like this is the beginning of my exploration of spherical structures," he says, "and I'm moving from small containers to larger containers." ”
The exhibition of "Black Church" will last from June 10 to October 16.
(This article is compiled from The Guardian)