LONDON — Salma Hayek Pinault, the Oscar-nominated actor, director, producer and humanitarian, will be among the cohosts of this year’s Serpentine summer party.
Historically a defining event of the London social calendar, it will take place on June 23 in Kensington Gardens under the latest Serpentine Pavilion, titled “a serpentine” and designed by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienz of the Mexico City-based Lanza atelier.
Hayek Pinault will front this year’s fundraiser alongside fellow Mexican Academy Award winners Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, in what the Serpentine touts as a celebration of Mexican creativity and Latin America’s place in global culture.
“Throughout my career I have been driven by a belief that Latin American voices, stories and creativity belong at the center of global culture, not at its edges. The Serpentine Pavilion has always understood this,” Hayek Pinault said.
“When I visited Frida Escobedo’s Pavilion in 2018, I felt it immediately — a Mexican architect in conversation with one of the world’s great parks, on her own terms. Lanza atelier’s ‘a serpentine’ continues that dialogue, and I am honored to be part of celebrating it,” added the wife of Kering chairman François-Henri Pinault.
This year’s brick pavilion was conceived as a rhythmic structure that shifts from opaque to permeable. It aims to form a visual dialogue with the Serpentine South Gallery’s brick facade and the English garden, while acting as a symbolic bridge between the U.K. and Latin America.
“The English brick city and the Mexican brick wall speak different languages, yet both turn earth, fire and craft into culture. It’s my honor to cohost this evening at Serpentine and see Mexico City’s creative spirit take root in Kensington Garden,” said Iñárritu, who took home back-to-back the Academy Award for Best Director in 2014 and 2015 for “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” respectively.
Cuarón, best known for directing films like “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” “Gravity,” and “Roma,” added that Lanza atelier’s design aligns with the language of cinema itself.
“The most powerful moments in cinema happen when space, light and structure stop being separate things. That’s what Lanza atelier has achieved with ‘a serpentine,’ a structure that breathes with its surroundings. I am proud to celebrate this alongside my fellow Mexicans, and honored to be part of an evening that belongs to London and Mexico in equal measure,” he said.
Hosted by Serpentine chairman Michael R. Bloomberg, chief executive officer Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, the party is the institution’s most important annual fundraiser.
Under Korek, who joined in 2020, the event has evolved into a high-impact philanthropy moment drawing international donors and cultural figures across various creative sectors.
“Hayek Pinault has spent her career championing Latin American creativity on the world stage. Lanza atelier has brought that same spirit to the evening, which they have helped shape alongside the Pavilion. Together, this feels like a natural celebration of the 25th Pavilion, of Mexican and British creativity, and of the conviction that art belongs in daily life. The Summer Party makes that possible, ensuring Serpentine’s program remains free and open to all,” Korek said of this year’s lineup.
In line with recent editions, some of the U.K.’s most innovative emerging fashion designers will be invited to dress friends and cultural figures for the night, continuing Serpentine’s reputation as a stage for iconic fashion moments, namely Princess Diana’s “revenge dress” worn to the party in 1994.
