We found the Serpentine Pavilion a little underwhelming this year, so we’d recommend you swerve that and make a beeline for the Tomas Saraceno show in the South Gallery. If you are an arachnophobe maybe stop reading now…
Saraceno cleverly starts his show outside with clustered animal boxes on the gallery roof and a topsy turvy ‘Animal Castle’ built to encourage park animals to set up home inside his creation. Doors to one of the main gallery spaces are left wide open all day to encourage visitors (especially the furry kind) into the gallery space. Little ones can clamber through a dog silhouette in the gallery wall and settle down to draw clouds.
Entering through the main gallery doors you are encouraged to leave your phones at the front desk (no pictures allowed) as you walk into a series of pitch-black rooms crammed with the most beautifully lit spiders webs. All on show have been grown in Saraceno’s studio in Berlin over several years. Note: there are NO real spiders in the room. The spider confessional is super cool. The building has been converted to run via solar power so if its cloudy you can’t see some bits of the exhibition so try to visit on a sunny day. This show carries a strong message - a call to ecological action with spiders suggested to be the perfect role models.
Serpentine South Gallery
Open 1 June - 10 Sept
Free
By Julia Colls 1 June 2023
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