British-Nigerian designer Yinka Ilori transformed London’s Greenwich Peninsula into a colourful hub for the summer. Commissioned to turn Tide Square into a place of collaborative play, Ilori’s installation is titled Promise me memories and I will let you in, and is created as an immersive multilayered ‘experience for play and reconnection’.
Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, The Tide is an elevated walkway and park connecting the peninsula and is currently adorned with a kaleidoscopic installation by artist Liz West. At the centre of Ilori’s intervention is a covered stage featuring a series of patterned motifs in the designer’s signature style, inspired by images of architectural spaces and colours he collected over the past year, while running and cycling in London during lockdowns. Until 19 September 2021, the installation will be open to the public and become the centre of a series of events and initiatives including open-air live music, film screenings and a talks programme, as well as summer-long radio residencies by Foundation FM and Reprezent FM.
‘After a year being deprived of time with loved ones, fun, and the chance to meet new people, I wanted to create an experience where people will feel joy with others once again,’ says Ilori.
Playscapes on the square include hopscotch made from reclaimed car tyres, a crazy golf course, and picnic benches for the local community to come together. A series of colourful flags on the riverside are inspired by the movement of water and colours of the peninsula’s surrounding nature, with further chromatic patterns on the pavement. Throughout the summer, the square serves as the setting for a Bompas & Parr-curated farmers’ market (every second Sunday).
‘We want to make playful, creative, safe spaces,’ says Kaia Charles, cultural projects manager of Greenwich Peninsula. ‘Yinka Ilori’s vision creates colourful, thoughtful narratives for communities to reconnect through curiosity and imagination.’
Concludes Ilori: ‘The installation invites visitors to have fun and promise they will create new memories, and the riverside location of the Peninsula, its open spaces and creative community make it the perfect setting. I hope it becomes a place people will return to throughout the summer, as they reclaim lost time through play.’
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