The Black Chapel | Serpentine Pavilion 2022, designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates opens on 10 June 2022.
Black Chapel is realized with the architectural support of Adjaye Associates with Goldman Sachs supporting the annual project for the eighth consecutive year. Conceived as a space for gathering, meditation and participation, with an emphasis on sacred music, Black Chapel becomes a platform for Serpentine’s live programme throughout the summer and beyond, offering reflection, connection and joy to the public.
Black Chapel, the 21st Serpentine Pavilion
Black Chapel draws inspiration from many of the architectural typologies that ground the artist’s practice. The structure references the bottle kilns of Stoke-on-Trent in England, the beehive kilns of the Western United States, San Pietro and the Roman tempiettos and traditional African building structures such as the Musgum mud huts of Cameroon and the Kasabi Tombs of Kampala, Uganda.
Drawn to the transcendental environment of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, Gates has produced a series of new tar paintings especially for Black Chapel. Determined to create a space that reflects the artist’s hand and sensibilities, seven panels hang from the interior structure. In these works, Gates honours his father’s craft as a roofer and uses roofing strategies and torch down, which requires an open flame to heat the material and affix it to the surface.
An operating bronze bell, salvaged from St. Laurence, a landmark Catholic Church that once stood in Chicago’s South Side, stands next to the entrance of the Pavilion. Underscoring the erasure of spaces for convening and spiritual communion in urban communities, the historic bell acts as a call to assembly, congregation and contemplation throughout the summer’s events.
Theaster Gates said: “The name Black Chapel is important because it reflects the invisible parts of my artistic practice. It acknowledges the role that sacred music and the sacred arts have had on my practice, and the collective quality of these emotional and communal initiatives. Black Chapel also suggests that in these times there could be a space where one could rest from the pressures of the day and spend time in quietude. I have always wanted to build spaces that consider the power of sound and music as a healing mechanism and emotive force that allows people to enter a space of deep reflection and deep participation.”
Bettina Korek, Chief Executive, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, said: “We are so grateful for Theaster Gates’ Black Chapel. The architecture, the remarkable paintings he specially created for the space as well as the polyphonic programme of events it catalyses, are astonishing. Black Chapel brings spirituality around Gates’ extraordinary vision. We are thrilled to present this stunning Pavilion with our loyal partners and supporters, for all of London’s people and visitors to come together and enjoy. Serpentine is proud to play a part in making Gates’ vision a reality, and for Serpentine’s Summer programme to build new connections between art and society. A platform for participation, live performances, with an emphasis on music, public engagement, rituals and the intensity of togetherness, Black Chapel inspires structure and meaning. In parallel to Gates’ incredible programme, we are also delighted to see the return of Park Nights, the experimental, interdisciplinary, live platform that has supported many artists in the early stages of their careers as well as pioneering writers and thinkers from around the world.”
The Serpentine Pavilion 2022 is open every day from 10am to 6pm.
Gates’ Serpentine Pavilion 2022: Black Chapel follows The Question of Clay, a multi-institution project featuring exhibitions at Whitechapel Gallery (September 2021 – January 2022), White Cube (September – October 2021) and a two-year long research project at the V&A.
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Serpentine Pavilion 2022 designed by Theaster Gates © Theaster Gates Studio.
Photo: Iwan Baan. Courtesy: Serpentine
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