Lavier’s Fountain at Serpentine Galleries

Bertrand Lavier: Fountain
Installation view, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, (13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015)
Image © Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Serpentine Galleries

Since October 2014, in the ground facing the entrance of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery there’s a large scale fountain made of garden hoses: it’s a work  commissioned by the Serpentine Galleries to the French artist Bertrand Lavier.

The Lavier’s Fountain is a playful interpretation of this most traditional of garden features, instead of a classical sculpture of a figure or natural form, the jets of water emanate from an apparently unruly mass of coloured garden hoses. The bright colours and mass-produced forms of hoses and nozzles appear in stark contrast with both the neoclassical façade of the Serpentine Sackler Gallery and the smooth lines of The Magazine restaurant, designed by  Zaha Hadid.

Bertrand Lavier: Fountain
Installation view, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, (13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015)
Image © Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Serpentine Galleries

Bertrand Lavier: Fountain
Installation view, Serpentine Sackler Gallery, (13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015)
Image © 2014 READS

Lavier’s work often incorporates unexpected combinations of objects and techniques, questioning the traditional distinctions between Readymades and works of art, and between different art movements.

Following Rock On Top of Another Rock, by Fischli / Weiss, the Fountain is part of the Serpentine’s ongoing outdoor commissions in Kensington Gardens, and will be in situ for one year, until October, 2015.

Bertrand Lavier: Fountain
Installation view, Serpentine Sackler Gallery (13 October 2014 – 4 October 2015)
Image © 2014 READS

Images courtesy of Serpentine Galleries
http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/