Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a sculpture that functions both as an indoor/outdoor garden and as public furniture. It consists of three separate multi-layered shapes with large planters hosting tropical greenery, two indoor and one outdoor, linking the two spaces and welcoming visitors to the public space of Duggan Morris’s R7 building in King’s Cross.

Zanzibar is designed for people to make their own performances, whether planned or impromptu; or simply for them to sit on and watch the world go by; or to read, wait or talk with friends or colleagues. The work is informed by tropical modernist architecture, particularly by the work of Lina Bo Bardi in Salvador de Bahia. It is named after the legendary restaurant for which Bo Bardi made a stage for bands to perform on, and from which it also borrows the material finish of concrete cast against corrugated metal. The planting follows another exhibition history, present in the installation photographs from the MOMA archive of the 1950s and 1960s.

About the artist
Céline Condorelli lives and works in London. Her work combines with art and architecture, often making structures to support other activities and forms of expression. She is currently Professor at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) Milan, and one of the founding directors of artist-run exhibition space Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK. Her first monograph, bau bau is published by Mousse (2017).

Commissioned by Argent/King’s Cross Limited Partnership