The last time we talked about Vantablack, also known as "the blackest black," we ended up in the middle of the dispute between artists Stuart Semple and Anish Kapoor, who obtained exclusive rights to use it. Those rights, however, apply to a single variant. The new Vantablack VBx2 is distributed as a spray, which allowed artist Asif Khan to apply it on the Hyundai Pavilion built in Pyeongchang, where the Winter Olympics are being held.
The darkest building at the Olympics
The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang will end on February 25. The small South Korean county has hosted almost 3,000 athletes from 92 different countries, and despite the enormous tensions (including accusations of Russian doping and the complex relationship between the two Koreas), I think it's possible to talk about a successful organization. Besides sports, Pyeongchang 2018 also made a little room for art, represented in a very special way. Hyundai commissioned the construction of a pavilion painted black... probably the deepest black that all the people there have ever seen.
A coat of Vantablack
The pavilion is a creation of artist and designer Asif Khan, who joined forces with Surrey NanoSystems to use Vantablack VBx2, an alternative version of the original Vantablack compatible with large-scale applications. The use of Vantablack VBx2 greatly increased the complexity of the project, since it's not possible to paint with this substance as if it were normal paint, and it required the presence of specially trained contractors. Even so, the results speak for themselves. Vantablack VBx2 can absorb more than 99 percent of the light it receives, and if it weren't for the small LED lights, it would be almost like looking at the monolith from "2001."
Inside the pavilion
The interior of the pavilion is as impressive as the exterior. There, a strange water installation produces about 25,000 water drops per minute, which slide down hydrophobic channels. Khan's vision is a play of scales: going from the immensity of the cosmos to the smallness of drops in a few steps. I admit I don't understand how that relates to the Olympics, but I can't deny its beauty.
