Tate Modern
25 – 28 May 2007
Notorious industrial music pioneers Throbbing Gristle, icon of down town New York’s experimental music scene Ikue Mori and the celebrated musician Gavin Bryars are just three of the performers in Tate Modern’s second major arts celebration for the May Bank holiday, UBS Openings: The Long Weekend. Building on last year’s four day event, which was a critical and popular success and attracted over 100,000 visitors, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will once again be transformed into a breathtaking venue to stage a series of remarkable, dramatic live events, some lasting throughout the night. There will also be a full programme of free interactive family activities, workshops and games aimed at all ages.The festival is part of an ongoing partnership between Tate and UBS which focuses on the Tate Modern Collection.
Evening events
Among the highlights will be the screening of Derek Jarman’s rarely seen early experimental super 8 films, made in the 1970s, revealing a vibrant proto-punk era. Responding to these, electronic music innovators, Throbbing Gristle, will give a one-off, live performance.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of the death of Andy Warhol in 1987, the artist’s first ever film, Sleep,1963, will be screened throughout the night, accompanied by the musical performance that inspired it, Erik Satie’s epic repetitive work for piano, Vexations, 1893. The five and a half-hour film will be looped to provide over eighteen hours of continuous viewing and features the poet John Giorno, asleep in his apartment. A special performance by Giorno will introduce the event. Warhol completed Sleep after attending the writer and composer John Cage’s (1912 –1992) historic 1963 performance at the Pocket Theatre in New York of Satie’s Vexations. This event will be re-created at Tate Modern with piano performances from leading musicians such as Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, and Joshua Rifkin. The performance will be accompanied earlier in the day by a panel discussion on the relationships between the work of Warhol, Cage and Satie with experts on all three figures.
We will also present seven films by the legendary, avant-garde film maker Maya Deren, four of which will be accompanied live by specially-commissioned works from Japanese-born, No Wave music maverick, Ikue Mori.
Following last year’s hugely successful evening of minimalist and electronic music, the celebrations will culminate with an evening of abstract audio-visual performances by Ryoichi Kurokawa, Toshimaru Nakamura, Billy Roisz, Sachiko M and Benedict Drew. These electronic multi-media artists from Japan, Austria and the UK will use digital and analogue instruments to create powerfully rhythmic and immersive audio-visual performances.
Daytime events
Several unmissable daytime events by internationally-renowned artists will be staged in the gallery. On Friday and Saturday, artist Mathieu Briand will turn the Turbine Hall into a gigantic sound installation: SYS*011. Mie>AbE/SoS\ SYS*010, also known as the Spiral. Briand’s installation will create a massive, experimental sound recording studio and performance space in the east end of the Turbine Hall. The Spiral’s unique sculptural environment, open decks and vinyl-cut machine will be explored through seven original performances throughout the day. Performers will include the artist himself, Charlie Dark, si-cut.db, Johnny Head-In-Air (Sarah Washington) and Xentos ‘Fray’ Bentos (Jim Whelton).
On Sunday and Monday visitors will get the chance to see Brazilian artist, Marepe’s, spectacular, specially-commissioned installation which comprises a gigantic carousel. Made from found objects from in his native Brazil, surrounded by tables laden with toffee apples, this beautiful work which will occupy most of the east end of the Turbine Hall and will reflect his artistic response to the duality of what he describes as a ‘beautiful and precarious Brazil’.
A workshop followed by a one-off performance presenting Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica’s (1937–1980) Parangolés, will be taking place on Monday in and around the gallery, inviting participation from the crowd. Produced by the artist between 1964 and 1968, the Parangolés are wearable artworks made of textile materials and found objects whose structure and textures are revealed through the movements of the person wearing them.
Family activities
The Great Turbine Challenge
It includes the return on all four days of The Great Turbine Challenge, the hugely popular 3000 square foot board game created by set designer Delia Peel and production manager Charlie Tymms, which attracted 2,000 players last year. Families put on crazy hats and play the game in teams as they move across the board from one corner to another, completing three or four activities related to the Collection along the way.
Yurts on the lawn
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday several yurts, each 24 feet in diameter, will be erected on the lawn at Tate Modern. In one of the tents there will lots of fun activities for families, as part of the Start programme (4-11 age group), including the chance to create a giant ‘exquisite corpse’ portrait or don a strange disguise and take part in surrealist family portrait. There will also be activities designed by Tate Modern’s youth group, Raw Canvas involving a treasure hunt.
Eileen - the pinhole camera van
Eileen, a van operated by artist educator Karen Barnes, complete with a pinhole camera, will be parked on the north landscape providing an opportunity for groups to take their own pictures.
Art and Science talks
And also on Saturday, Sunday and Monday in the Starr Auditorium, there will be special interactive talks on Art and Science for eight year-olds and over.
The third festival, UBS Openings: The Long Weekend, is planned for May 2008 as part of the Tate and UBS partnership. Throughout the year, we will continue to run our bi-monthly programme of Performance Art at Tate Modern as part of UBS Openings: Saturday Live.
Admission to the daytime events is free. Tickets for the evening events will be £18.00.
Tickets for the Warhol/Cage/Satie talk is £10 or £25 for a ticket which combines this event with the evening event, Sleep:Warhol/Cage/Satie.