On View: Folly at Socrates Sculpture Park

UPDATE: The opening reception described below took place on July 14, 2012, but the installation will be on view through October 21, 2012. Now extended through March 2013. For more information about the project, read on.

Last fall, the Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park announced Folly, a new competition inviting emerging architects and designers to propose contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. This weekend, “Curtain,” the winning entry by Jerome Haferd and K. Brandt Knapp, will be unveiled at an opening picnic (free hot dogs and burgers, while they last) on Saturday, July 14, from 2-6pm at Socrates. The architects will talk about their project at 4pm.

From the program listing on archleague.org:

“Curtain,” a project by Jerome Haferd and K. Brandt Knapp
Opening Reception
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Picnic, 2-6pm
Architects’ Talk, 4pm
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Boulevard at Broadway
Long Island City

The Architectural League and Socrates Sculpture Park invite you to a picnic celebrating the opening of “Curtain,” a new project by Jerome Haferd and K. Brandt Knapp. “Curtain” is the winning entry in Folly, a competition that invited emerging architects and designers to propose contemporary interpretations of the architectural folly. Folly was established by Socrates, in partnership with the League, to explore the intersections between architecture and sculpture and the increasing overlaps in references, materials, and building techniques between the two disciplines. The winning architects received a grant and two-month residency at Socrates, in addition to the opportunity to build a full-scale project in the park. For more information about the project, click here.

Free and open to all; no reservations necessary. Complimentary hot dogs, hamburgers, and lemonade while supplies last.

“Curtain” will be on view through October 21, 2012.

Directions: Socrates Sculpture Park is located in Long Island City, Queens at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard. The Administrative Offices are located directly across the street from the Park’s Broadway entrance at the intersection of Broadway, Vernon Boulevard and 11th Street.

In anticipation of the event, our colleagues at the League have posted an abundance of information about the project and the idea of the architectural folly on the League website:

•   Find more information about the opening reception here, with details about the project here.

•   Gregory Wessner, the League’s Special Projects Director, conducted an interview with Haferd and Knapp, in which the designers talk about program-less architecture; how sculpture, grottos and playgrounds informed their ideas; and the blurry, or perhaps nonexistent, line between art and architecture.

•   In January, the League hosted a panel discussion with emerging architects and designers on the topic of pavilions, follies and other small-scale contemporary projects. Gabriel Silberblatt recaps the program here, and videos of the presentations by Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem of Phu Hoang Office and Rachely Rotem Studio, Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg of SO-IL, and Michael Loverich of Bittertang are available here.