The winning architectural design for the popular Tate Online Net Art project Tate in Space, was announced today, Tuesday 11 March 2003.
First place was awarded to StudioCousins (UK), second place to David Rickard (UK/New Zealand). Other finalists were Manuel Carballo Amat (Venezuela), Dejan Mrdja (Yugoslavia) and Graham Gibbon and Vincent Young (UK). Susan Collins, Director of Tate in Space commented:
We are thrilled by the range and quality of entries we received, and that they came from all over the world., The entries are inventive, imaginative, thought provoking, and really challenge the notion of what it might mean to place a gallery, artwork and visitor in space.
Background
Tate in Space is an intervention by artist Susan Collins, launched in July 2002, and has become an arena for debate and imagination on the nature of a gallery including the search for new audiences. The project raises questions about cultural and institutional ambition and the very human desires to observe and communicate. The site has developed over the course of the last seven months and has been visited by an average of 5,000 people a month. Tate Online is sponsored by BT.
Part of the project was a competition to design an architectural concept for a Tate in Space Entries were welcomed from all age groups and countries and submissions were received from countries all over the world including Bulgaria, China, Germany, Italy and Venezuela. Submission requirements included a downloadable model which can be distributed online and assembled at home, images of the completed model and the proposed Tate in Space structure as well as a synopsis of the architectural concept. The judges were: Susan Collins (Tate in Space); Jemima Rellie (Director of Digital Programmes, Tate); Dr Andrew Coates (Space Scientist, Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London) and Sarah Wigglesworth (Architect). The winning proposal as well as the finalists’ projects will be featured on the Tate in Space site at www.tate.org.uk/space/competition.htm.
Tate in Space, already features invited propositions from three young architectural practices Etalab, Softroom and Sarah Wigglesworth. They were commissioned by Susan Collins to contribute to Tate in Space as part of the initial launch in July last year. Their contributions are already viewable and downloadable from the Tate in Space site.
The Tate website, sponsored by BT, was the most popular UK arts site in 2002 and is one of the most successful museum sites in the world. Since BT became sponsor of the website in May 2002, visitor figures have doubled to over 2 million unique users a year.