Fourth Plinth Pavilion
Cousins & Cousins were invited to design a pavilion to accompany the unveiling if the 2018 Fourth Plinth sculpture. ‘The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist’ by Michael Rakowitz will be made of empty Iraqi date syrup cans, representative of a once-renowned industry decimated by the Iraq wars. A long time symbol of good things to come in the Muslim and Jewish faiths, dates have an extensive social and economic history in Iraq. Besides being an important cultural signifier, in the 1970s dates were Iraq’s largest export after oil.
The birthplace of the date, a date palm, is the source of inspiration for Cousins & Cousins’ proposition; providing shelter for education programming and shared use.