user: News article: Anish Kapoor says addition to artwork was 'foisted' on him by Boris Johnson

Artist Anish Kapoor has revealed that a project in which the world’s longest slide will be built around his Olympic Park sculpture was “foisted” upon him by Boris Johnson, mayor of London, to make the artwork more profitable.

From June, Kapoor’s 114-metre-high (374 ft) structure – which was erected in 2012 on the Stratford Olympics site – will have a 178-metre (583 ft) tunnel slide wrapped around it, designed by renowned experimental artist Carsten Höller.

The public will be able to slide down the corkscrew tunnel, the longest in the world, which will twist and turn 12 times before ending with a 50-metre straight run to the ground.

But Kapoor, a Turner prize winner, said he had only approached fellow artist Höller to design the slide after the mayor of London had stipulated that the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower needed to become more of an attraction “in order to raise revenue”.

Kapoor said he had initially been very resistant to Johnson’s idea, as “it felt to me as if it was turning the whole thing in the wrong direction”.

He said: “It was not always my thinking. The mayor foisted this on the project and there was a moment where I had to make a decision – do I go to battle with the mayor or is there a more elegant or astute way through this?

“I knew of Carsten’s work so I thought, well, who better than a fellow artist to join up with and make this a positive story rather than a negative … luckily, and thankfully, Carsten was open to it, so we found a way round this.”

Kapoor’s controversial red sculpture, which was dubbed “Boris’s folly” when designs were first revealed, was found to be losing £10,000 a week in 2014. It was originally forecast to bring in annual revenues of £1.2m from ticket sales of £12 to get to the top, but visitor numbers were only 200,000 – 150,000 short of predictions.

The sculpture itself cost £19m, £16m of which was paid for by the sponsor, steel company ArcelorMittal, and £3m by the government.

But Kapoor said the success of his artwork could not be measured purely in “pounds and pence” and said he had a problem with the sculpture being viewed only as a commercial attraction.

“It may be theoretically losing money, but the fact that it has over 200,000 visitors, I think that’s a considerable gain,” said Kapoor.

“One makes artworks for other reasons than profit. I understand this is run as a so-called attraction, which I have problems with personally … I want it to be slightly more highbrow than that, without wanting to be pompous about it. There’s a difference between a fairground ride and art.”

This will be the third time Höller’s slides have been installed for public enjoyment in London. In 2006, he installed a series of metal slides in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, and brought them back in 2015 for his exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

The slide around Kapoor’s tower will be 76 metres high, and will include a tight corkscrew section named bettfeder, the German word for bedspring. It will be a stainless steel tube, but windows will be dotted along the slide for people to see out of as they shoot down at speeds as fast as 15 mph (24km/h).

Höller said he wanted people to embrace “the amusement side of it”.

He said: “A child might be here purely for the slide, while the serious art lover might see this in purely formalistic terms. I personally like the confusion, that you don’t know what it is but it still creates a very unique experience.”

The slide will officially open to the public on 24 June, and will cost £5, on top of the £12 to get to the top of the tower, though Kapoor said he “wished it was cheaper, frankly”.

“We are hoping Boris will be the first one down,” the artist added, “and that this will still be Europe when he gets to the bottom.”
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assistant: Mayor of London insisted on Carsten Höller slide being built around Kapoor’s Olympic Park sculpture to make it more profitable, artist says