©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Baalshamin, 2007

Photographs from Palmyra taken in 2007 by artist and architectural designer Mark Pimlott are part of his wide archive documenting our surroundings and the human impulse. These images show the remains of rare Roman architecture, now destroyed by fanatic iconoclasts. Palmyra is featured in Pilmott’s installation World (2012), situated outside the BBC’s New Broadcasting House. His piece names 750 sites of international significance and encourages viewers to consider the interplay between the seemingly random locations.

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, 2007

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Bel, 2007


©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Bel, 2007

Can you describe the atmosphere and what was most special about Palmyra?
To get to Palmyra, you have to drive across the desert. Along the road from Damascus, in the middle of the broad valley of the desert north of the city, a pale landscape, one finds the otherworldly roadside ‘Baghdad Cafe’. We approached Palmyra at the end of the afternoon; an oasis, with the ruins of the ancient city just beyond. The ruins are laid out on the plain, protected by the fortress of hills to the west and its sentinel funerary towers. The cardo and decumanus, remnants of a triumphal arch, as well as traces of walls of houses fill the valley like the desiccated carcass of a great city. Stones and landscape are tan and golden, the sky a flat and wan blue. Standing out from this field of stranded colonnades are the fabulously detailed temples of Bel and Baal-shamin – almost perfect, fabulously detailed. The detail is surprising; crisp and elaborate. In the case of Bel it is monstrous in scale, as is the case of the great Roman ruins at Apamea, Bosra and Baalbek. The scale seems to have been increased in the colonies to be even more impressive.

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Funerary towers, 2007

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Funerary towers, 2007

Was your trip part of a longer journey?
I was visiting diplomatic friends based in Damascus, in April – May 2007. We saw Bosra, Apamea, the Dead Cities, Palmyra; and in Lebanon, the ruins of Aïn Anjar and Baalbek. Unfortunately, I had to leave the trip early and did not see Krak Chevalier or Aleppo, much to my eternal regret.

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Baalshamin, 2007

Could you compare Palmyra and its significance to anywhere else?
Palmyra is as important as any of the very great architectural sites of the ancient world, and it is particularly significant as a site where trade routes and others came together and were welcome. Different gods are all accommodated here. It is a model for what our society used to have the ambitions to be. Therefore it should be considered as a most respected site. ISIS are perfectly aware of what they are destroying, and demonstrating our incapacity to act.

©Mark Pimlott, Palmyra, Baalshamin, 2007

Can you imagine any possible strategy to protect from the threat of further damage if the unrest continues?
Actions rather than mealy-mouthed promises might help. ISIS and its agents are determined to destroy civilisation in favour of a realm without time, a tabula rasa that is merely a waiting place for their redemption. To them, everything other is an abomination, apostasy, heresy. This will only stop if civilisation, or ISIS, is annihilated.
M.W
Take a look at World

The art of renovation, photos by Danica Kus

Some years ago Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas raised a critical voice about the architectural heritage culture, suggesting that too much preservation would stall the natural evolution of cities. That was before last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, when criticism towards historical sites was a typical Koolhaas provocation, which made sense when thinking about his practice and their grand aspirations at the time. However, Koolhaas’ change of heart was already evident at the Biennale.

His latest project for the Prada fashion empire has been all about renovation – and what a renovation it is. A vast gallery created from a historic industrial building for the Prada arts foundation in Milan, it’s a collaboration where the client and architect have thought meticulously about each detail and material: from the tower covered in gold leaf to the way the statues are displayed. Koolhaas had already designed stores for Prada; the arts space marks a culmination in a shared stylistic vision, while looking beyond the ‘white cube’ gallery model.

The art centre offers a story about Prada as a patron and the values of the fashion house, showcasing the cutting edge against the most traditional art forms.  For the inaugural exhibitions on classical sculpture Koolhaas investigated how the artworks change their meaning depending on the way they are exhibited. By hiding the pedestals Koolhaas aims to configure energy and movement that these figures had lost in the traditional display model. Inside the sculpture gallery, surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, artworks from antiquity, and their copies, are shown in a way that enhances their original movement. In the catalogue for the new exhibition Koolhaas explains:

“…each sculpture is extended, groupings can be formed, relationships suggested, sequences implied… The visitors move through the landscape, the fragility of the sculptures is respected by the shaping of the terrain…”

“The sculpture is inevitably a freeze frame of a moment of evident movement – forwards, sideways, or even backwards – but that movement is denied, sabotaged, deflated, aborted, and even contradicted by the pedestal. For many sculptures, the separation from the ground that the socle performs kills the energy of the work and subverts or undermines its meaning.”

Elsewhere the galleries continue through the vast former warehouse building, showing art from the 1970’s onwards, including contemporary stars such as Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, as well as a series of installations made of cars by Elmgreen & Dragset, Carsten Höller and Sarah Lucas. In these imposing rooms the white, neutral gallery walls are replaced by grey concrete surfaces providing a warmer, more tactile environment for the art.

The cafe by the entrance, designed by American film director Wes Anderson, has an outdoor terrace. It is a great stopover when visiting the large galleries in this former industrial neighbourhood of Milan.

The cafe interior is the antidote to the minimalist bar or restaurant usually found in museums. This cinematic space, decorated with a retro Pradaesque colour palette of cool pastels, is an element of surprise. Within the strong visual storytelling that underpins the fashion brand, there is always space for playfulness. With her husband Patrizio Bertelli, Miuccia Prada continues a trajectory of taste, lending high end fashion culture an intellectual edge. Koolhaas has created a space to house their personal art collection as well as an array of changing exhibitions and activities, which reflect the aesthetic values of understated, elegant luxury of the brand.

www.fondazioneprada.org

M.W.

Striking techno-craft in Kensington Gardens

Spanish architectural studio Selgascano have brought a psychedelic play with colours and materials to the Serpentine Gallery lawns. The new Summer Pavilion, which opened this week, is the fifteenth commission in the history of the pavilions and one of the more controversial designs in recent years. Expectations rise each year and the unusual mix of artisanal and techno can seem confusing, especially here as the most highly finished attention to detail has been the norm.

The rainbow-coloured materials, stretched over the irregular pavilion structure, play with reflections even under grey skies. But it’s inside when the sun hits the surfaces, where the play with light really comes alive. José Selgas, who partners in the Madrid office with his wife Lucia Cano, says colour is just the outcome of their creative process where they try out different materials: “We don’t care about colour, we just play with absolute freedom”.

Cano talks about the engineered plastic ETFE material they used in two layers here: ”We have used it before, but in a very different way. Here we did experiments, we added the colour and the mirror effects.” Their approach is playful and dressed in youthful outfits with matching colour-coded details together they embody the new generation of architects. They explore materials, forms and technological possibilities, pushing the boundaries of how architecture is perceived. And that’s certainly what the pavilion is and should be for.

The couple have been working together since 1998. Selgas says they feel a strong connection to the Spanish architectural heritage, although in the pavilion design they wanted to acknowledge the fourteen works by the previous architects. He explains their contribution is part of a longer process where each architectural design communicates with the others. “It was important to do something different” he says. “We love the artisanal, the handcrafted touch and we didn’t think that it would be possible with this kind of commission, where it would need to be prefabricated. But we have been able to experiment “.

For Selgascano the pavilion is a work in progress, which will be in London until October, then dismantled and moved elsewhere. The sense of fun makes up for some of the flaws, although the architecture establishment might not be entirely convinced. But as José Selgas points out the pavilion concept is in a stage of transition and will evolve and change: “It’s the starting point for the next period”. Maybe in the future there will increasingly be young emerging talent with experimental ideas to further challenge the norms of the architectural community.

Events program runs through the summer until end of October
www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/serpentine-pavilion-2015