Portavilion: Annika Eriksson talk

Portavilion, and UP PROJECTS production for London's parks, is a portable public art project that will occupy a trail of high profile parks across Central London throughout the summer 2008. A group of highly acclaimed international artists will present their own temporary ‘pavilion’ specially created for a park environment as a celebration of London’s most treasured public spaces. Portavilion is one of the most ambitious contemporary art projects to take place in London’s public realm. Its multiple sites will form a trail across a range of Central London boroughs, which can be navigated by bike, on foot or public transport.

For Regents Park, Swedish contemporayr artist has developed "The Smallest Cinema in the World – For the Wealthy and the Good” out of research she conducted in Regents Park. As a visitor to London, she was particularly intrigued by the concept of a “Royal Park” designed by crown architect, John Nash, and originally destined to be an estate for the rich - a private, picturesque residential setting for “the wealthy and the good”. The plan was never fully realized as pressures of the expanding city raised concern in Parliament about the need to use such open spaces for recreational purposes. Regents Park was therefore developed as a public park and is now one of London’s most popular public spaces.
“The Smallest Cinema in the World – For the Wealthy and the Good” will present a series of films made by Eriksson during the summer that reveal the lesser known activities that take place in Regent’s Park. The films pay homage to public spaces that are still free for everyone, they are poetic, extraordinaty but with their point of departure in reality.
“The Smallest Cinema in the World” is a tiny six seat mobile cinema that will be found in different locations around the park. To design the cinema, Eriksson has worked with Hopkins Architects and Expedition Engineers and it has been constructed by ISG with specialist joinery by Wood Newton .

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