Future Contemporaries party at the Serpentine Gallery

In the beautiful natural scenery of Hyde Park, on the grounds of the Serpentine Gallery, a rather special party took place this Monday night. Hosted for the Future Contemporaries  – a group of artists, collectors, philanthropists and decision-makers under the age of 39  – this extravagant end-of-summer gathering featured music from The Kills and Wild Belle, plus cuisine by Isaac McHale of The Young Turks and Daniel Willis of The Clove Club.

The Serpentine Gallery is a fantastic setting, with the Pavilion 2012 – designed by Herzog & de Meuron and legendary Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei – providing a beautiful centrepiece, its soothing cork architectural shapes hiding under a pond surrounded by up-lit trees.

Funky drum and bass, plus some dated pop and rap, boomed out of the speakers as a musical backdrop to the event until the smooth, chilled tones of Wild Belle (a new favourite) and the slightly melancholy, but equally cool, The Kills took to the stage. Disappointingly, however, despite the location and nature of the event, there was very little art to be seen aside from the architecture as the gallery itself was closed and the building was used only for its toilets – a slightly ignoble use of such a popular exhibition space. The alcohol flowed freely all night: everything from beer to wine, spirits and bespoke cocktails, which included a delicious rum and ginger concoction and a rather more bland vodka, lime & elderflower, but there wasn’t much choice for the non-alcoholically minded, and the nibbles – few and far between – were a bit tasteless to be honest.

In and around the pavilion, hundreds of people from the enormous guest list swanned about in designer get-up (despite putting on our best suit, we still felt conspicuously under-dressed at this most swanky of events) while innumerate black-clad bouncers reminded everyone around the perimeter that this was a strictly private party, reserved for the art world elite. And what a young elite they are! The Future Contemporaries all turned out and it would seem they stick strictly to their profile, as it appears there genuinely wasn’t a single person present over 40. Amongst the crowd, photographers snapped the various celebrities as they arrived – among them the Duchess of York, Princess Eugenie and Dhani Harrison – although, predictably, we only caught a brief glimpse of them before they were either mobbed or whisked away to a more private area of the event.

Co-hosted by Silencio – the Parisian members’ club designed and conceived by David Lynch – the Future Contemporaries party was sponsored by designer label Diesel, which kept its appearance at the event pleasingly low-key, without the gaudy banners and advertising campaigns with which sponsors of such events usually choose to adorn their venues. A classy, entertaining evening.

Verdict: •••

Orestes Daniel Kouzof

For more information on the Serpentine Gallery, click here.

To view the press release on the Future Contemporaries party, click here.