BEXHILL ON SEA, UK.- De La Warr Pavilion will present It Starts From Here - New ideas for a modernist masterpiece, on view 22 June –9 September. Artists: Tonico Lemos Auad, Tomoko Azumi, Hannah Dipper & Robin Farquhar, Simon Faithfull, John Frankland, Robert Frith, Richard Galpin, Liam Gillick, Gitta Gschwendtner, Ilana Halperin, Alex Hartley, Walter Jack, Luisa Lambri, Christina Mackie, Nils Norman, Dan Perjovschi, Hans Sofer & Jair Straschnow, Matthew Tickle, Richard Wentworth.

The De La Warr Pavilion has invited a number of artists and designers to come up some proposals for the De la Warr Pavilion - their ‘first thoughts’ when asked how they might respond to the building.

The artists have been given a free reign to think of new ideas that will engage with, play with, enhance, and challenge the architecture, context and site of the Pavilion. They are being actively encouraged to think ‘big’ and to create a visual proposal that is, in essence, the first idea for a possible new, temporary, intervention to the building itself.

Since 1935, the modernist Pavilion has been the source of inspiration from a range of artists, architects and designers. It Starts From Here seeks to give a fascinating insight into the powerful imagination of an artist, by illustrating the spark of inspiration at the beginning of a creative process which may, or may not, become a realised project.

All the ideas submitted will form the exhibition It Starts From Here in summer 2007. Alongside these we will show some of the early drawings of Erich Mendelsohn, the ‘first ideas’ of the architect who designed the De La Warr Pavilion 75 years ago. Also in the exhibition will be the first proposals of some great design classics – Sir Alec Issigonis’ sketch design for the prototype for the Mini (1956), Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s design for the GPO telephone kiosk (1924), Pluto the Dog (Walt Disney Studio 1936) and Henry C. Beck’s sketch of the London Underground (1931).

This exhibition is curated by Celia Davies Head of Exhibitions at the De La Warr Pavilion. It opens during national Architecture Week.

The Contemporary Artists are :

Tonico Lemos Auad came to the UK’s attention as part of the Beck’s Futures exhibition 2004. His Drawing on Bananas involved drawing with pins on banana skins, where the drawings only revealed themselves when the fruit began to rot.

Tomoko Azumi designs furniture, products and stage sets in an elegantly playful style. The Japanese designer describes the work as being about "changing people’s behaviour in a subtle way".

Hannah Dipper and Robin Farquhar are the creative team called people will always need plates. In keeping with their credo that good design should be used and enjoyed, treasured and shared, they try to develop products that, while diverse in style and application, always retain the fundamental values of functionality and beauty. They are the designers of the best-selling De La Warr Pavilion plates and mugs.

Simon Faithfull is a digital and video artist whose work explores where individuals place themselves within a space. His traditional drawing practise is supported by contemporary technology. His projects, often described as “mesmerizing” have included being part of the British Antarctic Survey where, during a two month trip to the Antarctic, he drew a drawing every day on a Palm Pilot and sent it, via email, to anyone who wanted to subscribe. www.simonfaithfull.org

John Frankland’s interests lie in architecture and space. His sculptural works explore illusory surfaces, often intervening with the architectural landscape that may alter or challenge the viewer’s perspective. This is played out in his most recent work Peer (2006) where he changed the perspective and scale of a small, shop-front gallery in London.

Robert Frith is one half of the design team Superblue (along with James Bowskill) focussing on sculptural product design, installations and public spaces. Their aim is “to have fun with our world” and Robert’s interests lie in boundaries and borderlines.

Richard Galpin is best known for work in which he creates photographs of various cities and scores directly in the surface of the each photograph with a scalpel, selectively removing areas of the photographic emulsion. In 2007 he will be showing the largest of these peeled photographs ever attempted at the New York Art Fair.

Liam Gillick’s practise encompasses many activities including writing, curating, designing and teaching which all overlap to form a complex and multi-layered body of work. He was awarded the first commission for a new outdoor sculpture court at Tate Britain. His installation Annlee You Proposes, comprised a video work and coloured sculptures which also functioned as furniture and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2002 .

Gitta Gschwendtner is a German-born furniture and product designer. Her design is about storytelling rather than styling “I enjoy design that has an idea or narrative at its heart,” she explains. “Humour and surprise are important ingredients too.”

Ilana Halperin is an American artist based in Glasgow where she is an Honorary Research Fellow at Glasgow School of Art. After starting out as a stone carver she has developed an interest in exploring the relationship between geology and everyday life through a variety of media. Projects often involve travelling to remote locations such as the Karst Mountains in China and the cave networks of Slovenia.

Alex Hartley is well know for his encased photographs of the interiors of galleries, tower blocks and fictitious structures. In his work, he pursues an innovative dialogue with iconic modernist architecture and an interest in the interdependence between architecture and nature. He is represented by the Victoria Miro Gallery where he has been showing his work in a number of lexhibitions since 1995.

Walter Jack The Walter Jack Studio creates furniture and architectural elements for buildings and landscapes. The studio produces work for indoor and outdoor public spaces, making them feel and work better. Recent work includes Shipwreck Shed for Dagenham and Barking Council.

Luisa Lambri uses subtle images of architectural landmarks, using sequential photographs to investigate the relationship between architectural space and subjective experience.

Christina Mackie’s sculptural work can currently be seen in the Art Now Sculpture Court at Tate Britain. She has exhibited as part of BritishArt Show 6 at Baltic and in Beck’s Futures at the ICA in London 2005. Her work is characterised by using disparate elements which are keep separate but held together by their placing, proximity and association.

Nils Norman is informed by urban politics, traditions and histories of utopian thinking and ideas on alternative economic systems that can work within the city. For the past decade Nils Norman has been devising a series of imaginative proposals for improving urban living conditions through community-based initiatives. Nils Norman was born in Bexhill on Sea, a stone’s throw from the De La Warr Pavilion.

Dan Perjovschi is a Romanian artist whose work follows the tradition of political cartoonists’ drawings which link humorous observations of everyday life with ironic commentary. In 2004 he was asked to be the unofficial artist at the Edinburgh Festival and created The Drawing Room in the Tate Members Room at Tate Modern in 2006.

Hans Stofer & Jair Straschnow - Swiss-born Hans Stofer is interested in the application of high and low tech materials and manufacturing methods to creative design. He studied Precision Engineering at Brown Boveri Technical College, Switzerland and has a Masters degree in jewellery design. In 2005 he was shortlisted for the Jerwood Prize for Met