Black Maria Temporary Performance Pavilion by GRUPPE // London.

Image courtesy of RCA.

Image courtesy of RCA.

Image courtesy of RCA.

Photo by Richard Wentworth.

Photo © GRUPPE.

Photo by David Grandorge.

Photo by Richard Wentworth.

Image by ins.

Architects: Gruppe, Zürich
Location: Central St. Martin Art School, London
Client: Richard Wenthworth
Engineering: Marcel Aubert
Year Completed: 2013
Photography: Credits as noted

Black Maria is a temporary architectural construct that served as an event space, meeting point, spectacle and screening device at Central St. Martin Art School in London’s Kings Cross. The project formed pard of artist Richard Wentworth’s ongoing investigation into architecture and sculptural practice. Black Maria was named after the first movie studio, a film production shed created by Thomas Edison in 1893. Wentworth invited Swiss architects GRUPPE to design, build and curate the structure as a result of the talk he gave in their structure and lecture series “Putting Things Together Taking Things Apart” for the Swiss Art Award 2012. Completed in 2013, this transformative structure functioned as a public social space during the day. In the evenings, doors were converted into screens and the stairs were reconfigured as seats, turning Black Maria into a space for discussions, screenings and performances.

The capacity of the structure was 120 seated people inside and approximately 200 people outside. Black Maria hosted around 50 events over 30 days. Among the great variety of events in the structure were screenings, discussions, lectures, theatre, workshops, fashion shoots and various performances.

[Photography credits as noted.]