Contemporary art gallery Hauser & Wirth, which has spaces in London, Zurich and New York, has just opened a new art venue in Bruton, Somerset. I headed down to have a look last week (keep an eye out for Blueprint’s September/October issue, out at the beginning of September, for my full review).
The gallery is housed in Durslade Farm, at one time a working farm and also the location of the film Chocolat, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. The former piggeries, cowsheds and threshing barn have been converted by Paris-based Laplace & Co into galleries and extended by two new buildings to form a courtyard in the middle. A crisp colonnade of sandstone provides a resting place to stop and admire the artwork, and indeed the architecture itself, outside. There’s currently an exhibition of Phyllida Barlow’s work, carrying on from her commission for Tate Britain. Her colourful creations, including a series of dangling pom-poms, extend throughout the intimate old galleries, meaning you really get up close and personal with her work (unfortunately pictures weren’t allowed).
The old farmhouse has been treated completely differently than the rest of the gallery and is meant for artists and clients coming to stay, as well as being open to the public. They’ve stripped back the linoleum floors and Sixties wallpaper, keeping it quite bare but bohemian. I loved the vintage bits and bobs the architects had picked up from local antique markets. Two artists-in-residence (they’ve converted an old brewery in town into artist studios) have already created work for the farmhouse; Buenos Aires-based Guillermo Kuitca painted Cubist-style markings straight onto the walls of the dining room for example.
Outside by the old farmyard there is a new bar and restaurant by Catherine Butler from At the Chapel (which I reviewed here– top marks from me!) that serves local produce, some of which comes from the farm itself. As with the chapel, it’s not pretentious, so you can either pop in for a coffee or extend your day out with dinner.
One of the best bits of the new art space is the landscaping by Dutch hortoculturist Piet Oudolf (the man behind the planting at New York’s High Line and Peter Zumthor’s 2011 Serpentine Pavilion). He has done the planting throughout the farm but the pièce de résistance is a perennial meadow at the back of the galleries. It’s yet to mature (hence no photos), but when it does, it will be reason enough to visit Hauser & Wirth Somerset.
The courtyard connects the old and new buildings and is a great sunny spot for stopping and resting.
View from the old farmhouse
Martin Creed’s ‘Everything is going to be alright’ marks the entrance of the old farmhouse
Martin Creed’s ‘Everything is going to be alright’ marks the entrance of the old farmhouse
Below: the interior of the farmhouse
Guillermo Kuitca’s design for the dining room
Images my own
