Left to right: Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer 1967 from HALF-A-WIND SHOW, Lisson Gallery, London, 1967. Photograph © Clay Perry / Artwork © Yoko Ono. Oscar Murillo, 2023. Photo by Tim Bowditch, courtesy the artist. Copyright © Oscar Murillo
Tate Modern today announced two major new projects for UNIQLO Tate Play, the gallery’s free programme of commissions and playful art-inspired activities for all ages. Over the Easter school holidays, Yoko Ono’s participatory instruction works will be staged around the building and landscape. This will be followed in the summer with a new installation by Oscar Murillo, who will transform the Turbine Hall with vast, ever-evolving paintings.
From 30 March to 14 April 2024, Tate Modern invites all visitors to take part in artworks by one of the most significant figures in the history of participatory art. UNIQLO Tate Play: Yoko Ono, Do it Yourself will extend across the building and landscape, featuring instruction pieces from Ono’s pioneering book Grapefruit, originally published in 1964. Some instructions exist as single verbs, such as ‘BREATHE’ or ‘WHISPER’, while others are phrases such as ‘Fold a crane and read’ or tasks for the imagination like ‘Go on drawing until you disappear’’. Located at various stages throughout the gallery, Ono’s poetic instructions will lead audiences into a self-led journey of imaginative play. This take-over will coincide with Tate Modern’s major exhibition YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND, in which visitors will be able to further explore seven decades of the artist’s powerful, multidisciplinary practice.
From 20 July to 26 August 2024, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will be transformed by Oscar Murillo’s new installation The flooded garden. Taking inspiration from Claude Monet’s Water Lilies and the garden in which he painted them, visitors will be invited to paint water and waves onto a monumental wall of canvas, creating a layered, collaborative painting of epic proportions. Ahead of the opening, Murillo will collaborate with others to load blank canvases with words and sentences that reflect individual experiences and concerns This will form the first layer of the painting, over which the public’s wave-like, gestural brushstrokes will be added to create ‘the flooded garden’. Murillo often creates works which bring people together. At Tate Modern, visitors will be invited to get involved in the energising process of mark-making, creating multiple large-scale collaborative artworks inspired by Murillo’s pieces.
Mark Miller, Director of Learning at Tate said: “We’re proud to present a brilliant year of UNIQLO Tate Play, one which demonstrates the programme’s unique role in commissioning large-scale participatory projects from world renowned artists. Free activities, events and digital content puts play at the heart of the gallery, opening art to new and intergenerational audiences.”
All year round, UNIQLO Tate Play offers free activities to families visiting Tate Modern and encourages people of all ages to play together and get creative. The programme is always made available to all, inspired by the belief that art and play are for everyone. Since it launched in 2021, it has commissioned large-scale projects by renowned artists including Rasheed Araeen, Yayoi Kusama and Ei Arakawa, and it has seen over 415,000 people take part in the gallery. Building on this incredible success, UNIQLO have now extended their support of the programme for another 5 years, from 2024 to 2029.
Further expanding this partnership, in February 2024 Tate and UNIQLO will launch Curated by Tate, a range of T-shirts based on works in Tate’s collection which reflect the spirit of play. Featuring the work of trailblazing artists Bob and Roberta Smith, Alexander Calder, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham and Nicholas Monro, the first set of designs are intended to spark discussion and inspiration beyond the walls of the gallery. This new range of Curated by Tate t-shirts will be available in UNIQLO stores worldwide and online, as well as in Tate’s shops.
Koji Yanai, Group Senior Executive Officer, Fast Retailing, said, “We are honoured to extend our partnership with Tate. Our global partnership is based on a shared philosophy of Made for All, a fundamental facet of UNIQLO LifeWear, and of our work with Tate to make art accessible. It has been a pleasure to see so many families participate in the UNIQLO Tate Play programme. We look forward to continuing our partnership, and to bringing the experience and joy of art to all.”