From Icon to Fair. New ArcelorMittal Orbit slide

On June 24 opens the new slide that runs the controversial ArcelorMittal Orbit tower, designed by Sir Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, inaugurated for the Olympic and Paralympic Games London 2012. This slide is the longest in the world and has been designed by Carsten Höller.

ArcelorMittal Orbit slide by Carsten Höller. Rendering courtesy of ArcelorMittal Orbit.

It is one of the most surprising and perturbed visual legacy of the Olympic and Paralympic Games London 2012, the ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower, designed by Sir Anish Kapoor and engineer Cecil Balmond. The ambitious plan to build this tower came from a casual conversation between the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson and Lakshmi Mittal the world's most important steelmaker, ArcerlorMittal.

London Mayor mentioned the idea of creating a benchmark to commemorate the Olympic Games and quickly come to agreement that the company has to take part of this project.

Thus it is born this controversial project for the city of London. The ArcelorMittal Orbit stands as the largest sculpture in Britain to be part of the Olympic legacy.

As presented, the work is called "Boris´s Folly" and according to data from 2014 the tower spends £10,000 a week. Wondering what new use give to that structure one of the creators of the tower, Sir Anish Kapoor invited the Belgian artist Carsten Höller to create a slide for the ArcelorMittal Orbit. This is the first collaboration between the two artists.

For that reason in June, it will be inaugurated the world's longest slide and one of the highest with 178 meters high, located in the old Olympic village now called Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

The journey through the work of Mr. Höller lasts about 40 seconds where up to 12 loops around the ironic structure. The tube is made of stainless steel but is pierced with windows so users can enjoy the sights of London at 15mph.

“A child might be here purely for the slide, while the serious art lover might see this in purely formalistic terms. I personally like the confusion, that you don’t know what it is but it still creates a very unique experience.” Said Höller.

The slide will officially open to the public on June 24 and will cost £12, although Kapoor said he wished it was cheaper, frankly. It aims to generate annual revenues of 1.2 million pounds in ticket sales, but the number of visits were only 200,000 people last year, 150,000 below predictions.

“We are hoping Boris will be the first one down", the artist added.

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General view. ArcelorMittal Orbit slide by Carsten Höller. Photography courtesy of ArcelorMittal Orbit.

Construction work begins at the Arcelormittal Orbit. Image courtesy of Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

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More information

Carsten Höller

Carsten Höller. Born in 1961 in Brussels, Höller studied Agronomy at the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel from winter semester 1979/1980 and in 1993 obtained a chair with a thesis on olfactory communication between insects. In the 80s, even during his work as a scientist, began to carry out the experiment, understood as a process, also in artwork. In 1993 Höller exhibited at the "Aperto" section of the Venice Biennale, in 1997 were with Rosemarie Trockel at the X documents with "A house for pigs and people," and in 2005 he represented with Miriam Backström the Swedish pavilion at the Biennale Venice. Other places individually discussed include the New Museum, New York (2011); Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2010); Bregenz Kunsthaus (2008); MASS MoCA, North Adams, EE.UU. (2006); the Musée d'Art Contemporain, Marseille (2004); ICA Boston, Massachusetts, USA (2003), and Fondazione Prada, Milan (2000).

ANISH KAPOOR

Sir Anish Kapoor, CBE RA (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor. Born in Bombay, Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.

He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice Biennale in 1990, when he was awarded the Premio Duemila Prize. In 1991 he received the Turner Prize and in 2002 received the Unilever Commission for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Notable public sculptures include Cloud Gate (colloquially known as “the Bean”) in Chicago’s Millennium Park; Sky Mirror, exhibited at the Rockefeller Center in New York City in 2006 and Kensington Gardens in London in 2010; Temenos, at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough; Leviathan, at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011; and ArcelorMittal Orbit, commissioned as a permanent artwork for London’s Olympic Park and completed in 2012.

Cecil BALMOND

Cecil Balmond OBE is a Sri Lankan – British designer, artist, architect, and writer. In 1968 Balmond joined Ove Arup & Partners, leading him to become deputy chairman. In 2000 he founded design and research group, the AGU (Advanced Geometry Unit). He currently holds the Paul Philippe Cret Chair at PennDesign as Professor of Architecture where he is also the founding director of the Non Linear Systems Organization, a material and structural research unit. He has also been Kenzo Tange Professor at Harvard Graduate School of Architecture, Saarinen professor at Yale University School of Architecture and visiting fellow at London School of Economics.

In 2010 Balmond set up his own architectural practice, Balmond Studio, with offices in London and Colombo. The research led practice is involved with art, architecture, design and consulting. One current project is the Gretna Landmark, Star of Caledonia for which Cecil is the artist. It is an illuminated sculpture that marks the Scottish and English border crossing, and will be completed in 2015.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to architecture.

Published on: April 29, 2016

Cite: "From Icon to Fair. New ArcelorMittal Orbit slide" METALOCUS. Accessed

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