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On June 23, London’s Serpentine Gallery will stage its flagship fundraiser with a high-profile twist: Mexican film figures Salma Hayek Pinault, Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu will co-host the evening alongside the gallery’s trustees and directors. The gathering celebrates the 25th Serpentine Architecture Pavilion and aims to spotlight cultural exchange while supporting free public programming.
The summer party, held in Kensington Gardens, will be hosted by Michael R. Bloomberg, Serpentine’s board chair, together with CEO Bettina Korek and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist. Organizers say the event brings together patrons and leaders from art, fashion, architecture, business and technology for an artist-led walk through the gallery’s season.
What the evening will showcase
Serpentine Summer Party co-hosts Salma Hayek Pinault, Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu
Karlie Kloss shines at Met Gala afterparty in New York
This year’s Pavilion — the 25th commission in a series that began with architects such as Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and Oscar Niemeyer — is titled a serpentine and was created by Mexico City practice LANZA atelier. Built primarily from brick, the structure is described by its designers as a composition that shifts between solidity and openness, intended as a symbolic and material link between the U.K. and Latin America.
Hayek Pinault framed her participation as recognition of Latin America’s growing presence in global culture, recalling the resonance she felt when a Mexican architect placed a pavilion in the park in 2018. Cuarón praised the Pavilion for integrating form, light and space in ways that echo cinema’s most resonant moments, while Iñárritu highlighted the shared craft of brickwork across English and Mexican traditions and welcomed the Mexican creative perspective taking root in the gardens.
- Hosts and curators: Michael R. Bloomberg, Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist, joined by Hayek Pinault, Cuarón and Iñárritu.
- Pavilion: a serpentine by LANZA atelier — brick-based, moving from opaque to permeable.
- Program highlights: an artist-led route through Serpentine’s summer shows, including major exhibitions by Cecily Brown and David Hockney.
- Food and fashion: a creative collaboration with LANZA atelier brings Mexican flavors to the event; emerging British designers are expected to style guests.
The party functions as the gallery’s principal fundraiser, with proceeds helping to keep Serpentine’s exhibitions and projects publicly accessible without charge. That civic goal underpins the Pavilion series, which has become an influential early-career platform for architects worldwide.
Why this edition matters
At a moment when cultural institutions are under pressure to broaden whose stories are showcased, the choice of a Mexico City studio for the 25th Pavilion — and the involvement of three internationally recognized Mexican filmmakers — is a clear statement about inclusion and visibility. The commission extends a conversation started by previous pavilions and signals ongoing interest in transatlantic artistic exchange.
For visitors and donors, the night offers more than pageantry: it presents an opportunity to see how contemporary architecture, painting and public programming intersect in one of London’s most visited green spaces, and to hear directly from creators whose work crosses national boundaries.
Attendance will include Serpentine supporters and cultural figures, and the program promises site-specific activations tied to the Pavilion alongside longstanding gallery exhibitions, giving guests multiple ways to engage with the season’s themes.
As Serpentine marks a quarter-century of its Pavilion commissions, the 2026 project and its celebratory evening underscore the institution’s dual aims: sustaining open access to art and amplifying diverse creative voices on a global stage.
