Serpentine Gallery Pavilion – Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen
Artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen, of the architectural practice Snøhetta, designed the Serpentine Gallery’s 2007 Pavilion. The timber-clad structure resembled a spinning top and brought a dramatic vertical dimension to the more usual single-level Pavilion. A wide spiralling ramp made two complete turns, ascending from the gallery’s lawn to the seating area and continued upwards, culminating at the highest point in a view across Kensington Gardens and down into the chamber below. The Pavilion acted as a ‘laboratory’ every Friday night with artists, architects, academics and scientists leading a series of public experiments. The programme Eliasson and Thorsen conceived with the Serpentine began in September and culminated in an extraordinary, two-part, 48-hour marathon event exploring the architecture of the senses.
The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007 by Olafur Eliasson and Kjetil Thorsen
24 August – 5 November 2007
