Jesús Rafael Soto’s Yellow Sculpture Turns Kensington Gardens Into a Moving Field of Perception
Serpentine Galleries has installed a new public sculpture by Venezuelan artist Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005) in Kensington Gardens, bringing Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999; 2023 Edition) outdoors for the first time in the U.K. The work, on view near Serpentine South from June 16 through October 25, opens the institution’s summer program with a piece that asks viewers to do more than look: they must enter it.
Built from 4,000 yellow PVC strands suspended from a rectangular steel framework spanning 10 meters, the sculpture changes as people move through it. The strands shift, flicker, and produce optical effects that alter with the viewer’s position, turning the surrounding air into part of the work itself. Soto conceived the piece in 1999, and his estate relaunched it as an edition in 2023 to mark the centenary of his birth.
The installation belongs to Soto’s long-running Pénétrables series, which he began in 1967 and developed in different scales and colors across his career. Born in Venezuela in 1923, Soto moved to Paris in 1950, where he became part of a generation of artists exploring motion, perception, and industrial materials. In 1955, he took part in the landmark exhibition Le Mouvement at Galerie Denise René alongside Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp, and Victor Vasarely, a key moment in the history of kinetic art.
Soto’s own words still frame the logic of the work. In a 2004 conversation with Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist, he said, “Contrary to what we have always believed, space is not something that is filled with objects. Objects are in fact filled with space.”
The presentation also reflects Serpentine’s broader commitment to art outside the gallery walls. This summer marks the 25th edition of the Serpentine Pavilion, and the gardens currently include Giuseppe Penone’s Albero folgorato (Thunderstruck Tree, 2012) at Serpentine South and David Hockney’s large-scale printed mural A Year in Normandie (Detail) at Serpentine North. Together, the projects make the park itself feel like an expanded exhibition space — one where movement, scale, and weather become part of the viewing experience.
