'The Serpentine Pavilion is our first project together in the West. It was a very natural feeling to work on it together. It was as if we'd never stopped collaborating and that, I think, is very important' - Jacques Herzog
On the occasion of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, the Serpentine Gallery is delighted to present three new Limited Editions
The design team responsible for the celebrated Beijing National Stadium, built for the 2008 Olympic Games, has come together again in London in 2012 for the Serpentine's acclaimed annual commission. Presented as part of the London 2012 Festival, the culmination of the Cultural Olympiad, the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012 is Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei's first collaborative built structure in the UK.
In conjunction with the design of the Pavilion, the team have created three distinct Limited Editions, each intrinsically linked with the different phases of the architectural design process.
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012 2012
Silkscreen print on Somerset 410gsm paper
84.1 x 84.1 cm
Edition of 200, each signed and numbered
SOLD OUT
The Limited Edition silkscreen print beautifully illustrates the concept behind this year's structure, which is based upon the forms of the eleven previous Serpentine Gallery Pavilions. Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei's print features nine patterns, each demonstrating a different design aspect of their Pavilion. A reflection of the architect's unique design process, this print layers and combines the architectural plans for the structures that have gone before. Tracing the contingent patterns formed by the striations of the foundations, this print details the historical terrain that has informed the final shape of this year's Pavilion.
Note: The Limited Edition Pavilion 2012 is as yet due to be signed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. There will therefore be a longer wait than usual before the prints are ready for collection/dispatch from the Serpentine Gallery. We currently estimate that these prints will be ready by the end of August at the latest. Should you purchase one of these Editions you will receive an email notification from the Gallery as soon as it is ready. We are especially grateful to you for your patience in the meantime.
Landscape 2012
Landscape 2012
Hand-sculpted, painted and fired porcelain
Made using traditional methods in Jingdezhen, China
25 cm diameter x 3 cm height
Edition of 10, each stamped
Accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
£8,000 (excl. VAT)
By tracing and bringing together the footprint and foundations of the former Pavilions, the architects have carved an astonishing landscape, capturing hints of each structure in their final Pavilion design. This terrain is captured in the form of a Limited Edition hand-sculpted porcelain landscape, which has been produced using traditional methods in Jingdezhen, China. Poignantly memorialising the history of this unique architectural commission, this elegant Edition pays homage to the constructed realities encountered by the architects when conceiving of this year's Pavilion.
To purchase Landscape limited edition please contact:
Tom Harrisson, Editions Manager
T + 44 (0)20 7298 1511
editions@serpentinegallery.org
Stool 2012
Stool 2012
Hand-sculpted, painted and fired porcelain
Made using traditional methods in Jingdezhen, China
45.5 cm diameter x 50 cm height
Edition of 20, each stamped
Accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity
SOLD OUT
Based on the cork stools presented as part of the Pavilion, Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei have created a Limited Edition porcelain stool especially for the Serpentine Gallery. This beautiful object combines a delicate surface with a seemingly functional form, referencing Herzog & de Meuron's sustained interest in revealing new relationships through unexpected uses of materials. Similarly, this work alludes to Ai Weiwei's frequent use of hand-sculpted porcelain, traditionally regarded as China's highest art form. From his early works using Neolithic and Han dynasty vases, to his recent installation of porcelain sunflower seeds in the Tate's Turbine Hall, this Edition is exemplary of Weiwei's enduring relationship with ceramics.
ABOUT THE DESIGNERS
Herzog & de Meuron
Both born in Basel in 1950, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) from 1970 to 1975 with Aldo Rossi and Dolf Schnebli. They received their degrees in architecture in 1975 and established Herzog & de Meuron in Basel in 1978. Now a partnership led by five Senior Partners, the practice has designed a wide range of projects from the small scale of a private home to the large scale of urban design. The practice has been awarded numerous prizes including The Pritzker Architecture Prize, US, in 2001.
Herzog & de Meuron are known for designs that are at once highly inventive and sensitive to the site, geography and culture of the region for which they are planned. In many projects Herzog & de Meuron have worked with artists, an eminent example of that practice being their collaboration with Ai Weiwei which resulted in the design of three realised projects to date including the Beijing National Stadium (2008). Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have been visiting professors at the Harvard graduate School of Design since 1994. They have been professors at the ETH Zurich since 1999 and co-founded the ETH Studio Basel - Contemporary City Institute in 2002.
Ai Weiwei
Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei also works as an architect, photographer, curator and globally-recognised human rights activist. Born in 1957 in Beijing, he began his training at Beijing Film Academy and later continued at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. His work has been exhibited around the world with one-person exhibitions at Stiftung DKM, Duisburg (2010); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2009); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009); Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Cambelltown Arts Center, Sydney (2008); Groninger Museum, Groningen (2008), and participation in the Venice Biennale in Italy (1999, 2008, 2010); Guangzhou Triennale in China (2002, 2005), Busan Biennial in Korea (2006), Documenta 12 in Germany (2007), and the 29th Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2010).
In October 2010, Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds was installed in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London. Ai Weiwei participated in the Serpentine Gallery's China Power Station exhibition in 2006, and the Serpentine Gallery Map Marathon in 2010.
For further information please contact:
Tom Harrisson, Editions Manager
T + 44 (0)20 7298 1511
editions@serpentinegallery.org
