Beauvallon Sur Mer Preview

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Stop 1: Toyo Ito Pavilion

Toyo Ito and Cecil Balmond with Arup, Steel and glass structure, 309.75 sqm, 2002The design of the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002 by the award-winning architect Toyo Ito, artists and structural engineer Cecil Balmond and engineering firm Arup was based on an algorithm of a cube. The numerous triangles and trapezoids formed by the system of intersecting lines give a sense of infinitely repeated motion. Toyo Ito Pavilion has been praised in both architectural and art circles with London's Evening Standard declaring: 'Why can't all new buildings be this good? Toyo Ito's magical summer pavilion is a lesson in imagination'. The white triangles and trapezoids resemble sails when seen from a boat coming towards the estate and we think that Toyo Ito Pavilion's found its true home here at Le Beauvallon.

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Stop 2: The Butterfly in Love With the Flower

Zheng Lu, Stainless steel sculpture, 652 x 206 x 410 cm, 2014The distinctive surface of the shark fin sculpture is characterised by its delicate bubble-like structure. It represents the idea that unsubstantial elements may appear externally strong, but are transient and evanescent in nature - referring to the idea of the shark as a powerful creature that is in fact in danger of disappearing, dissolving like a bubble, as a result of human’s urge to dominate nature.

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Stop 3: To Poseidon

Xia Hang, Stainless steel sculpture, 380 x 175 x 192 cm, 2014In this steel sculpture the shark is portrayed as a war ship, a soldier of Poseidon, strong and resistant to attack. A sense of transience is evoked through the idea that the different elements that make up the sculpture can be disassembled and reassembled in a different form. In this way the sculpture is reminiscent of a toy, subverting the serious themes expressed through its materiality.

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Stop 4: The Rotunda

A rotunda (from Latin rotundus) is any building with a circular ground plan and sometimes covered by a dome. The rotundas have historical and architectural value in Europe. It was thought of as a structure descending from the Roman Pantheon. This Rotunda was bulit in early 20th century and it remains largely unchanged.