Tina Manis Associates shortlisted for Art Fund Pavilion in London, UK

The Art Fund Pavilion open competition presented by Tent London and the Lightbox, has publicly selected Tina Manis Associates’ submission as one of its five shortlisted projects.

The annual competition, sponsored by the Lightbox Museum’s £100,000 Art Fund Prize, brought in over 600 hundred submissions from 52 countries for a semi-permanent pavilion. TMA’s entry was the only selected finalist representing the United States.

The winner’s Pavilion will be engineered and constructed by Facit and shown as part of Tent London during the London Design Festival 2009, before taking up residence at The Lightbox as additional gallery space.

The design approach for the project was to meet the demands of the program: complex interaction with artwork, the intimacy of discourse, and the inclusiveness of social gathering, by opening and elevating what would be the typical ‘art box’ into a dynamic and interactive art container.

Through a simple strategy to ‘split’ a single floor plane into a series of ramps, a new interior topography was created which also serves as the primary structural ‘pattern’ for the building. The pattern is mirrored at the ceiling plane, oriented to the two key entries of the Lightbox site and then flipped to create a reciprocal series of planes at the ceiling.

The resultant structure engages the public through its diverse perspectives and experiences, from the circulation on platforms at varying levels to the fans of light that allow viewers to gaze out from the inside and vice versa. The visitors are invited to develop a relationship with the art while also engaging with the surrounding environment.

The shortlisted entries will be exhibited at The Lightbox from 31 March - 12 April 2009 and the winner will be announced on the 6 April 2009.

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