A Rotterdam-based sculptor who works primarily with tent imagery, Dré Wapenaar (b. 1961, Berkel en Rodenrijs, The Netherlands) creates innovative spaces that foster dynamic social encounters and encourage new perspectives on familiar rituals. The artist has built a birthing tent (a water-filled sphere with a view to the sky) and a bivouac for the dead—both featured in MASS MoCA’s 2004 exhibition The Interventionists. Past projects have included a dew-drop shaped nest for environmentalists that hangs from a tree and a concert pavilion for Simeon Ten Holt’s compositions for four grand pianos.

Wapenaar’s utopian, portable sculptures offer alternatives to conventional architecture, re-thinking definitions of public and private space, and presenting opportunities for both meditation and exchange. Straddling the worlds of art and design, the artist has been comissioned to make useable spaces for schools as well as campsites. His tent-sculptures are included in numerous museum collections.

For MASS MoCA, Wapenaar has designed a pavilion for the museum’s central courtyard (located behind the box office), the site of musical performances, films, openings, and other special events. Brazilian redwood decking, harvested from plantings certified as environmentally sound by ______, and a series of overlapping, colored canopies provide an inviting environment for daytime visitors as well as nighttime audiences. Supplying shade and protection from the elements, the canvas, steel, and wood structure extends the museum’s space out of doors, giving the public a place to read, rest, picnic, and socialize while maintaining the courtyard as a lively site for cabaret and theater. The artist’s multi-use design, which will be completed in several stages, includes a proposal for a raised seating pit featuring a custom-built wood stove.

Wapenaar’s design has gone through three distinct phases, from the original rectilinear canopies, shown here, to the complex, organic shapes you will see outside. W became increasingly interested in the historic mill structure as he worked through his designs, exposing the large oil tank on the north wall, for example, by cutting a new opening, and juxtiposing his shaped canvases and round black-steel frames against rough-hewn brick and industrial I-beams. The project was fabricated and installed by the MASS MoCA fabrication staff, with engineering assistance provided by Jim Balmer of Boston Building Constulatns, and Rogier ____ of Tentech Engineers, Rotterdam. Sperry Sails of Marion, Massachusetts sewed the canopies. Waterman Construction of Adams, Massachusetts installed the deck and provided critical rigging assistance.

major support provided by transamerica, an aegon company; and fonds bkvb (the netherlands foundation for visual arts, design and architecture). commissioned for nl: a season of dutch arts in the berkshires, coordinated by the department of press and cultural affairs at the consulate general of the netherlands in new york and service centre for international cultural activities (sica) in amsterdam. initial funding for nl was provided by the netherlands culture fund through sica. additional funding has been provided by the mondriaan foundation.

DRÉ WAPENAARPAVILION