Joana Vasconcelos: ‘Wedding Cake’ to open on 8 June at Waddesdon Manor

Wedding Cake – a 12-metre-high sculptural pavilion in the form of a three-tiered wedding cake, clad entirely in more than 25k ceramic tiles – is a major new work by celebrated Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos opening at Waddesdon on 8 June.

Almost five years in the making, Wedding Cake was commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation for Waddesdon, prompted by the relationship between visionary collector Lord Rothschild and Vasconcelos.

Part sculpture, part architectural garden folly, Wedding Cake is an extraordinary, enormous, fully immersive sculpture which combines pâtisserie and architecture. Gleaming and icing-like outside and in, it offers an intricate and richly sensory experience – glazed in pale pinks, greens, and blues, beset with sculptural ornament and complete with the sounds of trickling water and a site-specific lighting scheme. Wedding Cake is Vasconcelos’ most ambitious commission to date, described by the artist as “a temple to love” that celebrates festivity and marriage (artist’s impression, right).

Tickets go on sale Tuesday 14 February – appropriately, Valentine’s Day.