IN terms of classic British films, they don’t come much more iconic than The Italian Job – the heist caper which climaxes with a literal cliffhanger ending.

Now, as part of the Cultural Olympiad, that famous final scene has been recreated on the roof of Bexhill’s De La Warr Pavilion by Turner-nominated artist Richard Wilson.

Wilson had been in discussions with former De La Warr Pavilion director Alan Haydon for several years about the project before his death last year.

“I know the space quite well,” says Wilson, ahead of Tuesday’s hoisting of the coach on to the building’s roof.

“I thought about its location on the South Coast – the edge of the land and the sea, and the edge of the sea and the sky. I like to play with architecture – I started to consider the building as a set of edges, rather than a set of surfaces as we usually see it.”

There was also a desire to do something different from Antony Gormley’s 2010 rooftop installation, Critical Mass, which saw him populate the roof terrace with a number of different figures.

“I wanted to go to the top of the roof, and put something on the edge – using the building as a plinth for the work.”

When Haydon raised the fact it might be included in the Cultural Olympiad it got Wilson thinking about Team GB and images of the British.

“The coach at the end of The Italian Job is coloured red, white and blue – so it could become a flag-waving piece for the Olympics,” says Wilson. “It could also take the Olympic concept further – I thought about those guys going for gold – that moment between winning and losing something.”

It linked in nicely with the robbers at the heart of The Italian Job – seeing the possibility of the hard-fought-for gold bullion slipping through their fingers at the end of their carefully planned heist as its weight threatens to take them and their coach over the edge of the Italian mountain.

“The piece was beginning to represent more and more,” says Wilson. “I saw it as a flag-waving piece for the country.”

Akin to the closing scene in the film, the coach will be rocking precariously on hydraulics up to 12 degrees from the horizontal, following random patterns.

But there will be no fear of it coming off the edge of the building as it will be attached to a structural base, and held by a solid pin.

“We had to make quite a substantial chassis,” admits Wilson. “We’re hoping the piece will have some longevity so I can redesign the chassis and make it disappear in future versions.”

Although Wilson searched to find the exact coach featured in the film – which came from the now defunct Harringtons in Brighton – he discovered that of the 40 Legionnaire No 1s made, only one still exists in Norfolk.

He used drawings from that last coach and stills from the film to recreate a life-size model out of a steel frame, plywood and fibreglass.

“It looks a bit garish and bright at the moment as it has just been painted,” he says. “Hopefully the sun, salt and sea breeze will weather it so it becomes beautiful in its own way.”

One of Bexhill’s most famous sons is behind the project – and the connection was made at the wake of Wilson’s former champion Haydon.

“I met Eddie Izzard at Alan’s funeral,” says Wilson. “I was introduced to him and found him a very interesting guy – he knew a lot of my work. I mentioned about doing the project and dedicating it to Alan’s memory. Alan was a great maverick and a believer in ideas.

“Eddie asked how much we needed and we shook on it.

“Eddie has had a long relationship with the De La Warr Pavilion – he used to work in the cafeteria as a youngster. He’s also passionate about the film – he spoke endlessly about how much he loves the whole idea of it.

“To try to limit Eddie’s risk we have made limited-edition models of the work which we will be selling so some of the money goes back to him.”

The film itself will be projected on to the side of the pavilion during the summer, with a special drive-in event for the Mini Owners Of Great Britain later this month and a free public screening on Saturday, August 25, from 6pm.

“It is a classic English film,” says Wilson.

“It caught the imagination of the population.”

Indeed, in 2009 the Royal Society Of Chemistry asked people to work out a method of extracting the gold from the coach within 30 minutes without using a helicopter, and prove it using maths.

The piece also fits in with Wilson’s body of work, which has seen him play with architecture – spinning sections of buildings around on an axis, adding artificial extensions to motor caravans and replacing a functional maintenance stairwell in Japan with a giant traditional English banister.

“My philosophy behind my work is to take things we think we know, like a coach or a building, and do something to it which surprises people,” he says.

“I like to challenge the preconceptions about what ideas they believe in. Working with structures or architecture turns it into an event as opposed to something object-based.”

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