A public sculpture by Jesús Rafael SOTO is on view at Serpentine, launching a dynamic summer programme in the park. Situated in the vicinity of Serpentine South, Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999; 2023 Edition) will be on show to 25 October 2026.This is the first outdoor presentation of the artist’s work in the UK. Art situated in the park has become central to Serpentine’s year-round activities, extending its exhibitions beyond the gallery walls and into the surrounding landscape.

Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999; 2023 Edition) exemplifies the artist’s lifelong interest in movement, space and tactility. Born in Venezuela in 1923, SOTO became one of the leading exponents of kinetic art and created more than seventy Pénétrable sculptures of various sizes and colours throughout his seven-decade long career: works composed of metal rods and nylon strands suspended in space through which viewers are invited to enter.

In a conversation between Hans Ulrich Obrist and SOTO, that took place in Paris in March 2004, the artist said: “Contrary to what we have always believed, space is not something that is filled with objects. Objects are in fact filled with space. Space flows. Nothing limits it. I’m interested in showing people who are interested in space as a quality or a universal density that in fact it is space that is in control—it defines and sets its own conditions.”

The work on view in Kensington Gardens is based on the Pénétrable BBL Jaune conceived and executed by SOTO in 1999 and relaunched in 2023 by the artist’s estate to mark the centenary of his birth. Spanning 10 meters in length, the work consists of 4000 identical PVC strands suspended from a rectangular steel framework. Each strand is hung with a slight gap between each other, creating a ‘moiré’ effect in which the vertical lines seem to move and flicker when viewed from afar.

The audience is considered as an integral part of the work. Visitors are invited to walk through, interact with and push against the yellow tubes. Their physical presence subtly changes and shifts the environment they are immersed in, invoking the more playful and participatory aspect of SOTO’s practice. SOTO created his first Pénétrable in 1967, pushing the boundaries of how sculpture can generate dynamic interaction between the object and the viewer.

Since its launch in 1970, Serpentine has had a long-standing commitment to bringing art out of the traditional gallery context and into the surrounding landscape, offering an opportunity for artists to engage with the immediate environment of Kensington Gardens. SOTO’s Pénétrable BBL Jaune, alongside Giuseppe Penone’s Albero folgorato (Thunderstruck Tree, 2012) situated on the plinth at Serpentine South, are the latest additions to a long-standing series of remarkable public presentations in The Royal Parks which includes the large-scale printed mural A Year in Normandie (Detail) by David Hockney in the garden at Serpentine North.

This year, the Mexican architecture studio LANZA atelier, founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, has been selected to design the 2026 Pavilion. Titled a serpentine, LANZA atelier’s Pavilion was unveiled to the public at Serpentine South on 6 June 2026 with Goldman Sachs for the 12th consecutive year and Rolex as the Official Timepiece of the Serpentine Pavilions as of this year. As the Pavilion reaches its 25th edition, Serpentine will celebrate this landmark anniversary through a special partnership with the Zaha Hadid Foundation.

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Images: Jesús Rafael Soto, Pénétrable BBL Jaune (1999;2023 Edition). © Jesús Rafael Soto / ADAGP, Paris 2026. Courtesy Atelier Soto, Paris and Galerie Perrotin. Photo: George Darrell. Courtesy Serpentine