A Pilar of the community

The new contemporary art gallery, Pilar Corrias, has located to a 3,800 sq ft ground floor and basement showroom at 54 Eastcastle Street, in the heart of The Langham Estate, and will open in October with an exhibition of new art from French artist Philippe Parreno.

The internationally renowned architect Rem Koolhass/OMA, has created a space on two floors defined by a gallery’s major functions: a room for exhibition, a room for private viewing, storage and managing offices.

Committed to the realization and presentation of ideas, the 3,800 sq ft space will be indefinitely changeable and transformable for each exhibition, with plans for large-scale projects reaching beyond the physical boundaries of the gallery. The program will present a mix of exhibitions by emerging as well as established artists. Current large scale projects in production are Don’t Cross the Bridge before you get to the River by Francis Alỹs and The Cephalopod Project, a collaboration with artists Miguel Barceló and Phillipe Parreno.

The inaugural exhibition will present a new work by Phillippe Parreno, Fraught Times: For Eleven Months of the Year it’s an artwork and in December it’s Christmas, 2008. The work will be a large scale, painted, cast aluminium sculpture of a decorated Christmas tree. Playing with the length of time we engage with something and with the concepts of celebration and desire, the Christmas tree will mark the event of the opening of a new gallery. Parreno’s work is known for challenging viewers by questioning authorship and perceptions of reality and illusion.

Pilar Corrias has worked with international private collections, institutions and artists since 1993, and has worked as a director at two major galleries in London – Lisson Gallery and Haunch of Venison London.