Margate, United Kingdom. 2017

Art in public space

Blushing Pavilion is the result of a research project on the body, heritage, sexuality and architecture of desire in Margate. Margate was once considered the most important seaside resort on the English coast. The intervention of this 19th century pavilion on the seafront presents a selection of tangible and intangible heritage objects in a graphic documentation.

The intervention symbolises the theatricality of the power of the natural forces of wind and water. The pink curtains draw the flexible boundaries of social space while offering the possibility of sensory contemplation. Their colourful movement in the wind refers to the Victorian dresses, the fluttering skirts and the blushes of shame of the observer and the observed in that situation. 

The project was inlcuded in "New Architects 3", a publication that presents the 100 most interesting architecture studios in Great Britain.

The temporary exhibition was in the Palm Bay shelter at the eastern periphery of Cliftonville, close to the unofficial nudist area of the town, at Botany Bay.  This particular location has been chosen not just because of these architectural and anthropological issues but also because of its liminality, where those exploring the edges of public behavior - crying, screaming, loving, having pleasure, etc - have been forced by historic and current normativity out of view in public space. In the same spirit, Blushing Pavilion is an act of resistance to their being blown away.

This project is part of HOME, an ambitious programme of creative residencies and commissions in Cliftonville, Kent in 2014/15. It was selected under the Cross-border Cooperation Programme INTERREG IV A France (Channel) - England, co-funded by the ERDF and other partners including: Margate Arts Creativity Heritage, Resort, Thanet District Council and Kent County Council. European Union. Investing in your future.

More info here 

Developed in collaboration with Studio Sam Causer.

Photos: Charles Gonzalez Bernal