The short version
- Tarek Atoui’s Hyundai Commission opens in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall on October 13 and runs to April 11, 2027, with free admission.
- Atoui invents instruments that double as sculpture and are played by touch, breath and motors, and his work treats listening as something done with more than the ears.
- Tate had not published a description of the piece three days before opening, so what it sounds like is still unknown.
Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall goes to a sound artist this year. Tarek Atoui’s Hyundai Commission opens on October 13 and runs until April 11, 2027. Admission is free, and the hall is open 10:00 to 18:00 Sunday to Thursday and until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. It is the 11th commission in a series that Tate says has drawn more than 19 million visitors in a decade.
Atoui was born in Beirut in 1980 and works in Paris. He is known for inventing instruments, often from glass, water and ceramics, that stand as sculpture and are set going, in Tate’s words, “by touch, breath and motors.” His work asks how listening can happen through several senses at once, touch and sight included. He has shown at the Venice Biennale and Documenta, and at Tate Modern itself in 2016.
On October 16 and 17, from 19:00 to 20:30, Atoui, Emptyset, Mazen Kerbaj, Kenichi Iwasa and Aya Metwalli will improvise inside the installation. Those sessions are free with a ticket. Tate will have ear defenders on hand and is running audio-described touch tours for blind and partially sighted visitors.
As of October 10, Tate’s pages give no title, instruments or materials for the work.
