Pablo Bronstein: Rose Walk 2017
‘Garden gazebos present the opportunity to show off a knowledge of architectural style for the sake of pleasure and vanity alone, with no need of the usual practical programmes, and in so doing reveal much about the impulse to decorate and entertain.’ Pablo Bronstein
Rose Walk by Pablo Bronstein consists of two ten-metre-high white pavilions, connected by a twenty-five-metre-long rose garden. The pavilions are built in two different architectural styles; one is gothic and the other demonstrates a chinoiserie style.
These imposing and elaborate follies act as entrance to, and ornamental framing of, the narrow promenade between them. Rose Walk is one of Bronstein’s largest outdoor works. The chinoiserie style was influenced by Bronstein’s interest and research on Chinese traditional architecture and design. Rose Walk’s clean white hue gives a sense of newness as a bold form in the landscape.
Alongside the addition of Rose Walk to the permanent collection, Jupiter Artland commissioned a live performance that responded to the artwork’s opposing architectural forms. Both the performance and sculpture use Bronstein’s drawings as a starting point, with the work becoming a vehicle for looking at the way that structures and traditions impact our everyday experiences.
Biography
Pablo Bronstein (b.1977, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine artist living and working in London. He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, graduating in 2001 and at Goldsmiths College, London, from 2003–4. His work mediums from sculpture to prints, drawings, choreography and performance, always with a focus on architecture.
He specialises in architectural sketches in ink and gouache, set in ornate frames and depicting imagined buildings incorporating styles from 18th century France and the 1980s. Bronstein views drawing as the central core of his artistic practice, from which the many other elements arise. His articulate draughtsman-like technique represents iconic and familiar architectural sights; they are often not real places, but rather have been envisioned as new designs by the artist’s imagination. His work also includes live performance such as Constantinople Kaleidoscope captured at the Tate Modern.
Recent solo exhibitions include Sir John Soane’s Museum, London (2021); OGR, Turin (2019); RISD Museum, Rhode Island (2019); Bloomberg Space, London Mithraeum (2018); RIBA, London (2017); Franco Noero, Turin (2017) and Tate Britain, London (2016). His work has been included in numerous group shows internationally. His work is held in museum collections including British Museum, London; Tate, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Texas.