I wanted to see in action the temporary pavilion commissioned by the Dulwich Picture Gallery – the result of a joint competition with LFA 2017 for emerging architects. I will come clean: as an ‘emerging’, albeit ageing architect, I entered the competition myself without success. The brief was for a special events space in the grounds of Sir John Soane’s historic picture gallery, for use during the summer months. I was attracted by the first Pavilion Late event, Women’s Lives Made Art, and also wanted to catch the Vanessa Bell exhibition before it closed, so arranged to go with an artist friend. (Pavilion Lates will continue every Friday, with the one on the 16th June listed on the LFA website).
We arrived in a thunderstorm, which the pavilion, designed by local practice If_Do, managed to survive undaunted. Staff were clearing up the remains of what looked like a fun children’s painting event, while the rain cascaded almost elegantly off the steel mesh canopy. The space is divided with mirrored partitions, some fixed and others movable, creating interesting reflections of the main building and gardens (I like the way this picks up on Sloane’s own love of creating illusion), although this also caused moments of confusion and hilarity as people couldn’t distinguish between mirror and ways through!
The space switched very successfully from children’s event to evening event, complete with bar and music system. Particularly impressive was the way that the pavilion seems to have achieved the Gallery’s aim of broadening its offer and in attracting in a younger audience. In fact a queue soon formed for both the event and the bar. Women’s Lives Made Art proved a really interesting mix of talks, including one on the history gender politics in women’s art and another by a dance director on how Virginia Woolf’s writings have been referenced in dance. SHE Choir performed live and there was a workshop in the grounds on smartphone photography _ a great idea. Although I needed to book, the entire evening’s events were free. It represented great value and both my friend and I can strongly recommend it.
