On Tuesday (June 23), as the setting sun bathed London’s Kensington Gardens in a honey-tinted glow, the Serpentine Summer Party—annually one of the U.K. art scene’s most fashion-forward events—returned in characteristically impeccable form. This year’s fête was hosted by arts patron and former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, with co-hosts actress Salma Hayek Pinault and filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Arts patron and entrepreneur Isha Ambani (in a look by Steve O Smith) returned for her second year as chair of the host committee.
As always, the newly unveiled Serpentine Pavilion, a serpentine, was the star around which the evening orbited. Designed by Mexico City-based LANZA atelier and built of rows of brick columns that alternately reveal and conceal, it situates the historic masonry of Serpentine South in the longstanding cultural exchange between Europe and the Americas. “The English brick city and the Mexican brick wall speak different languages, yet both turn earth, fire, and craft into culture,” González Iñárritu said.
Spotted among the crowd were actors Michael B. Jordan, Jeff Goldblum, Kyle Maclachlan, Rebel Wilson and Isla Fisher; artists Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry and Yinka Shonibare; architect Lina Ghotmeh; socialite Nicky Hilton; and, as per usual, an absolute cavalcade of designers, Aaron Esh, Charles Jeffrey, Chet Lo, Daisy Knatchbull, Daniel Lee, David Koma, Dilara Findikoglu, Emilia Wickstead, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Harris Reed, Priya Ahluwalia, Robert Wun, Roksanda Ilinčić and Wes Gordon among them. When not mixing and mingling, they went on an artist-led journey through Kensington Gardens that showcased Serpentine’s summer program, which features major exhibitions of works by Cecily Brown (“Picture Making”) and David Hockney (“A Year in Normandie and Other Thoughts on Painting”), alongside Jesús Rafael Soto’s public installation Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999; 2023 Edition).
In what we understand is a brand-new approach to the Summer Party, LANZA atelier partnered with Egyptian artist Laila Gohar to shape the fête’s creative direction. She created a spiraling sequence of culinary experiences that included tamales, hibiscus, mango and guava sorbets and a chocolate installation inspired by the Pavilion’s bricks, along with The Weight of Air, a series of mesmerizing fabric installations. “The spiral invites movement, and the food follows its path, passed between hands, shared in conversation, consumed and transformed,” she said. “Somewhere between architecture, landscape and banquet, the party becomes a living composition shaped by the movement of people.”
A smartly curated program of music kept the energy high as dusk gave way to darkness. DJ Wolfram Amadeus opened, followed by DJ Carlita, before Danny L Harle spun what was arguably the night’s most compelling set. But the evening’s most joyful notes were played by Mariachi Las Adelitas, whose acoustic performance brought warmth, humor and an unexpectedly moving thread of celebration to a night that was already, by any measure, perfectly harmonious.
