Installation view of Kengo Kuma, Kengo Kuma Associates and Geoffrey Nees’s Botanical Pavilion 2020 on display in NGV Triennial 2020 from December, 19, 2020 – April 18, 2021 at NGV International, Melbourne © Kengo Kuma and Geoff Nees.
Photo by Tom Ross
Kengo Kuma Pavilion Opens at National Gallery of Victoria Triennial
A new pavilion has been unveiled at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) in Melbourne, Australia. Designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates, in collaboration with Australian artist and curator Geoff Nees, Botanical Pavilion 2020 is part of the National Gallery of Victoria’s 2020 Triennial, which opens to the public on December 19. The 2020 exhibition is the second iteration of the event, following the NGV’s inaugural Triennial in 2017.
Inspired by traditional Japanese carpentry methods, Botanical Pavilion is composed of small, interlocking pieces of wood, “assembled like a three-dimensional puzzle,” says Kuma, to form a crescent-shaped structural arch. “The joints are loose, but when all the elements are in place, the structure becomes stable,” the architect says in a video interview with NGV. Wooden joints used throughout allow the pavilion to be easily be disassembled and re-assembled. Visitors can walk through the tessellated interior, which is lined with timber collected from local trees felled or removed over the years from the neighboring Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens.
The installation will be on view at the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial, running from December 19, 2020 through April 18, 2021. Afterwards, it will enter NVG’s permanent collection.
Watch a video interview with Kengo Kuma and NGV below. Video courtesy NGV Melbourne.
