This year’s Serpentine Summer Party brought together everyone from Sadiq Khan to Zadie Smith, Caroline Polachek to Steve McQueen, Yinka Ilori to Charlotte Tilbury, for a Ruinart-fuelled evening in and around the . Designed by Minsuk Cho of Mass Studies and titled “Archipelagic Void”, this summer’s installation is inspired by , the open courtyards found at the centre of traditional Korean homes, and consists of five “islands” . There’s “Gallery”, filled with piped-in recordings taken in Kensington Gardens and fused with Korean vocals by composer Jang Young-gyu; “Tea House”, which nods to the Serpentine South building’s original function as a tearoom; and “The Library of Unread Books”, filled with never-before-opened volumes by artist Heman Chong and archivist Renée Staal.
Equally interactive is “Play Tower”, which encourages visitors to climb its fluoro orange netting, and “Auditorium”, intended to serve as a gathering and performance space. Co-hosts Peggy Gou, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Venus Williams led the arrivals on the night, with guests invited to pose in front of Judy Chicago’s “What if Women Ruled the World? Participatory Quilt”, featuring Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova – on display as part of Serpentine North’s monograph , open through September. DJ Soulscape, Gilles Peterson and Más Tiempo provided the soundtrack for the evening, while Notting Hill’s Farmacy served dishes based around produce from its biodynamic farm.
