‘New York, that broiling nexus of humanity, and infinitely-chambered cathedral of history where circumstance, happenstance, kismet and a billion, billion fleeting and enduring connections are the base metals that the alchemy of a city transmutes into nation. The city of the future, like that of the past, is a solar system, ever accreting, fusing, fraying and reforming. In this pavilion is the music of migration, the songs and the memories of homes and loves far away, sung in the cavalcade of artefacts which accompanied the journeyed on their way to join the orchestra of a city. The music and poetry they would dance within and write for the love of their new home and their old.’

Using simple, reusable materials the orbital pathways of countless migration journeys are traced, crossing and fusing to become a physical and musical allegory for the collective symphony of a city; celebrating through the notes of a central instrument these myriad mmigration stories, carried here from far and broad to be woven into the new myths of New York.

Now is an auspicious time to be celebrating the value of migration, when borders and barricades are too often being placed and too seldom removed. The Diaspora pavilion exists to remind us that there is no ‘other’, that we are all migrants.

‘How are we set into these motions? what trade winds bring us to the shores that might make us our fortunes? further our lines, those lines in the shore’s sand which become tracks for the people-rivers who will carve the canyons and mountains in the summits and valleys between skyscrapers. the carried flotsam that built the new world. the stories, storeyed and storied hands, whose bodies long faded but fingerprints into the city, by its very being here, are indelibly pressed. What songs will generations yet to come bring with them to write the future music of humanity from this place?’

The theme of the Diaspora pavilion is the movement and music of migrants who have - and will in the future always - shape New York. Its shape is derived from a series of orbits (conic sections), signifying the motion of migrants under attraction from the gravity of the city. Their paths intertwine and loop around this centre of gravity winding through each other to create a covered chamber comprised of swirling elliptical forms. Simple, re-useable plastic pipe is threaded and woven to create the shelter, arranged into three ovular performance spaces – oriented to the rising and setting of the summer sun, and directly due South. The pavilion is roughly 15 meters (49ft) long by 11 meters(36ft) broad by 5 meters (11ft) in height. The novel construction uses the pipes as tension elements in the structural system of the pavilion, and allow it to move, and sway in response to wind or touch.

The central ‘instrument’ is the heart of the piece – the cypher for the city itself. A wind and motion powered musical instrument. Using a series of flag-like ‘vanes’ mounted on flexible poles which catch the wind and animate the piece, it creates a beguiling sequence of organ-like chords and percussive rhythms using a series of found objects and instruments from the New York MTA subway lost and found*. Additionally, larger orbits are traced into the landscape with a series of musical ‘reeds’ which sway and sing a collective chorus in the breeze. These reeds become more dense towards the pavilion. The Diaspora pavilion will be heard whistling softly from across the parade ground, with increasing intensity as it is approached.

The three performances spaces in Diaspora, oriented to the passage of the sun have each a different character across the course of a day, the pavilion pays homage to places afar from where so many of the city’s residents hail.