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Checkmate in the West End
Louise Jury7 May 2009
Trafalgar Square will be transformed into a giant chess set complete with six-foot ceramic pieces for this year's London Design Festival.
Passers-by will be invited to restage the Battle of Trafalgar in the boardgame by moving the enormous pieces around the square.
The moving sculpture, created by Spanish designer Jaime Hayó*, is the attention-grabbing centrepiece for the festival, which takes place for the seventh time in September.
Announcing details today, Ben Evans, the festival's director, said: "By doing this in this public space, it introduces design to a much wider audience who won't have come deliberately to see it but come across it by accident.
"Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people pass by this square in the course of a week. We wanted to try to find things that were participative for people."
The Victoria and Albert Museum will be the main hub of the festival. Its newly-opened Sackler Centre will host shows, talks and installations.
Highlights include an exhibition of graphic design and a public-seating installation in the tunnel entrance to the V&A made from reclaimed waste.
Leading designers will take groups of visitors on tours of the V&A to point out objects of special significance to them. Although the designers have not yet been confirmed, Mr Evans said: "As an illustration, it would be fascinating to hear from Ron Arad or Terence Conran where they got their inspiration from."
Part of the point of the festival is to promote London's enormous strengths in all forms of design.
"There's so much going on in London that it's difficult to get your voice heard unless it's concentrated," Mr Evans said. "There's a sound business sense to the festival."
Many of the shows feature designers seeking an audience for their work.
Mr Evans added: "We provide the platform and generate the audience for them to meet.
"What is interesting is the growing sophistication of Londoners who are commissioning work. They're not just going to the high street but they are being braver and more confident in their design decisions."
Many of the 200 events will have work on sale ranging in price from £5 to £50,000. It is thought more than 300,000 people attended last year's festival.
This year's will run from 19 to 27 September.
Reader views (2)
While it looks very nice, the idea is terribly old hat and not original at all. I thought this was a designer forum???
- Wq (Ex Pat), Frankfurt, Germany, 07/05/2009 12:28
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How original. Not. It took a designer to come up with something that already exists? ie. Oversized lawn chess? By a Spanish designer? This is really promoting "London's enormous strengths in all forms of design"? Those of us who live hear on a daily basis are only too well aware of how bad design affects our daily lives. I don't think a chess set in trafalgar sq is going to help.
- Real, London, 07/05/2009 09:20
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