Serpentine (@serpentineuk)

Now open! Serpentine Pavilion 2025: ‘A Capsule in Time’ by @marinatabassum  Tabassum’s Pavilion seeks to emphasise the sensory and spiritual possibilities of architecture. It’s comprised of four wooden capsule forms featuring translucent panels that diffuse and dapple light as it enters the space. The structure will also be able to move – one of the four wooden capsules can connect with another, allowing the site to be reconfigured for different uses. In the centre stands a Ginkgo tree, the leaves of which will slowly shift from green to yellow over the summer and into autumn. Lining the interior are shelves storing books on Bengali culture, literature, poetry and ecology. We welcome you to have a browse during your visit! 🎟️ Free admission 📍 Serpentine South 📆 6 Jun - 26 Oct 2025, check our website for opening hours - Photos: @iwanbaan Special thanks to our Headline Partner @goldmansachs for their 11th consecutive year of support. Major Support is provided by @qatar_museums, Eugenio López and Esha and Robin Arora. Technical Advisors @aecom Construction by @stageone

‘Thoughts in the Roots’ by Giuseppe Penone is now open 🌿 ‘‘All of my work is a trial to express my adherence and belonging to nature, and it is with this thought that I have chosen the works for the exhibition. The two paths that I have created—inside the gallery and outside of it, in the park—become two integrated gardens.’’ – Giuseppe Penone Born in a village near Cuneo, Italy, Penone’s practice is deeply influenced by the forested landscapes of Northern Italy, shaping his lifelong exploration of the relationship between humans and nature. A leading figure of Arte Povera—a movement celebrating the simplicity of natural materials and artistic techniques—Penone experiments with a wide range of materials including wood, iron, wax, bronze, terracotta, marble, and plaster, bringing their individual physical qualities to the fore. This exhibition presents a series of sculptures and installations dating from 1969 to the present through which visitors will encounter the delicate yet powerful ways in which the artist reveals nature’s hidden structures, rhythms, and gestures. 🎟️ Free entry 📍 Serpentine South 📆 3 April – 7 September 2025 - ‘Thoughts in The Roots’ is made possible by @luganodiamonds, @louisvuitton, Don Quixote Foundation, and Eugenio López; and co-produced by @qatar_museums.   ‘Albero folgorato’ is made possible by @gagosian. Art in the park lead supporter: Kenneth C. Griffin. Photos © George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone.

We’ve selected five artists to create their own generative AI models through an open call with @aliasbyalien! Swipe to see the results, inspired by things as diverse as the anatomical structure of bees and the unspoken chaos of the human mind. Alias enables artists to train and publish these models, called Aliases. Reflecting each artist’s individual creative methodologies, they extend artistic practice into new modes of production, distribution and engagement. The tools and infrastructure Alias create are a direct example of the creative R&D our Future Art Ecosystems initiative has been investigating. They operate across boundaries, between art and engineering, and propose new ways of shaping technological futures.

Interested in diving deeper into Giuseppe Penone’s practice?  Pick up a copy of the exhibition catalogue for ‘Thoughts in the Roots’, available to buy online or on-site. The publication features drawings and new writings from the artist, an interview with Serpentine Artistic Director @hansulrichobrist and contributions from philosopher Federico Campagna ( @fedcampagna), composer @ludovico_einaudi, artist Precious Okoyomon ( @devilintraining_), and writer Elif Shafak ( @shafakelif). - Edited by Claude Adjil, Exhibition Curator Designed by @atelierdyakova [1] © readsreads.info [3, 5, 7] © Giuseppe Penone

Serpentine is honoured to announce an exhibition of recent works by David Hockney.   Presented at Serpentine North from 12 March to 23 August 2026, the exhibition will showcase seminal works, shown in the UK for the first time. Admission will be free to the exhibition, which is the artist’s first at Serpentine.    David Hockney said: “I’m excited to present an exhibition at Serpentine in 2026.”   The exhibition will include Hockney’s recent works: the celebrated ‘Moon Room’ which reflects his lifelong interest in the cycle of light and time passing. It will also feature digital paintings from his ‘Sunrise’ body of work.   ‘A Year in Normandy’, a 90-metre-long frieze, inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry, showing the change of seasons at the artist’s former studio in Normandy, will also feature in the show.   David Hockney is interested in how art and technology can come together in new ways. Recommending that people slow down and notice the beauty of the world around them, he believes that simple, everyday beauty, like a sunrise, is worth celebrating. - Photo: Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima. © David Hockney

‘Temporary Boyfriend’, an improvisational performance by @malcolmxbetts and @nileharris, comes to the Serpentine Pavilion on 12 and 13 September! In their duet, Harris and Betts explore Black gay kinship – tracing echoes of ancestral memory, the grief and legacy of the AIDS epidemic and the fleeting solidarities of contemporary queer brotherhood. With live musical accompaniment by GENG PTP ( @ganggrizzly) and scenic and lighting design by @dyerrhoads, ‘Temporary Boyfriend’ offers a meditation on the tension and tenderness that these two long-term collaborators constantly negotiate. Presented for Park Nights 2025. - Images: Maria Baranova

Artist Giuseppe Penone at work. To see the final result, stop by ‘Thoughts in the Roots’ at Serpentine South until 7 September. - Images © Archivio Penone

What if you held a tree long enough for it to grow around your hand? Giuseppe Penone explains the creation of his artwork ‘Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto’ (‘It Will Continue to Grow Except at that Point’). His fascination with nature can be viewed through works in the exhibition ‘Thoughts in the Roots’, open at Serpentine South until 7 September. - Excerpts from video © Archivio Penone

Watch the build of 2025 Serpentine Pavilion, ‘A Capsule in Time’ by @marinatabassum – from laying the foundation to the final touches.

The tree and its constituent parts – wood, leaves, roots – are central to artist Giuseppe Penone’s practice. For almost 60 years, Penone has returned over and over again to trees in order to explore many routes of sculpting and mark-making.  These include using the pigment of foliage for frottage, carving into beams to reveal a younger sapling and casting entire trunks in bronze. It’s the final week to see his exhibition ‘Thoughts in the Roots’ at Serpentine South. The last day to visit is 7 September – be sure to stop by before then!  - [1,5] © George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone [2-4] © Archivio Penone

Our Arts Technologies team introduce their latest report, ‘Future Art Ecosystems 5: Art x Creative R&D’, which explores and advocates for the wide range of creative R&D work happening across the arts industries. Available to read online now.

For artist Giuseppe Penone, breath is sculptural. It’s the volume of air that occupies the lungs and the path it takes when exiting through the mouth. It’s the shapes air forms outside the human body, expanding freely or brushing against objects. This theme unites a series of works which span decades, two of which are on view in the exhibition ‘Thoughts in the Roots’ at Serpentine South. - [1] Detail of ‘Respirare l’ombra’ (‘To Breathe the Shadow’), 2025. © George Darrell. Courtesy Giuseppe Penone [2] ‘Soffio di foglie’, (‘Breath of Leaves’), 1979. © Archivio Penone [3] Giuseppe Penone with ‘Soffio’ (‘Breath’), 1978. © Archivio Penone