War Damaged Musical Instruments
21 November 2015 – 3 April 2016 (Press View: Friday 20 November)
Tate Britain, Duveen Galleries
Admission free
Open daily from 10.00 – 18.00
For public information call +44 (0)20 7887 8888, visit tate.org.uk, follow @Tate
Today Turner Prize-winner Susan Philipsz (b.1965) unveils one of her most ambitious works to date, specially commissioned by 14-18 NOW, to mark the centenary of the First World War in the Duveen Galleries at Tate Britain. Entitled War Damaged Musical Instruments, the work uses recordings of tones from “The Last Post” on a range of brass and wind instruments damaged in various conflicts. As part of the Tate Britain site was originally a military hospital which treated soldiers injured in the First World War, the work will have a special resonance.
This 14-part recording features damaged British and German instruments playing isolated tones from the military bugle call ‘The Last Post’, which signalled to lost and wounded soldiers that fighting had finished. The central section of the work features the sounds of several instruments from the First World War. Other instruments, like the Balaclava Bugle or the horn from the Battle of Waterloo, have detailed histories while those salvaged from a bunker in Berlin at the end of the Second World War, speak of the chaos civilian life is thrown into in times of conflict. Philipsz’s work produces focused lines of sound in the galleries, echoing the directional signals given to soldiers as they advanced and retreated in battle. War Damaged Musical Instruments has been developed over several years and its presentation at Tate Britain forms part of the ongoing commemorations for the First World War centenary.
Susan Philipsz said: “I have focused on the brass and wind family, as these instruments need the human breath to produce the sound. I am less interested in creating music than to see what sounds these instruments are still capable of, even if that sound is just the breath of the player as he or she exhales through the battered instrument. All the recordings have a strong human presence.”
Ann Gallagher, Director of Collection (British Art), Tate said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Susan Philipsz back to Tate Britain with such a resonant and affecting sound work. Tate Britain is committed to showcasing new work by contemporary British artists, but it is particularly timely to be able to present this project during the First World War centenary commemorations.”
Jenny Waldman, Director of 14-18 NOW, said: “It gives us great pleasure to commission a work that gives such a powerful reflection on the damage wrought in the First World War. Showcasing the piece at Tate Britain, which has its own interesting history from that period, will make the experience all the more compelling.”
Using recordings, often of her own voice, Susan Philipsz is best known for her immersive sound environments. Born in 1965 in Glasgow, Philipsz currently lives and works in Berlin. Winner of the Turner Prize in 2010, the artist also received an OBE in 2014. She is represented in several major museum collections, including Tate and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and in recent years her work has been exhibited at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2014); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2011) and Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2009).
War Damaged Musical Instruments is curated by Sofia Karamani, Assistant Curator, Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain.
For further information please contact Cecily Carbone or Emma Double, Tate Press Office. Call +44(0)20 7887 8731/4939 or email cecily.carbone@tate.org.uk / emma.double@tate.org.uk
Notes to Editors
About 14-18 NOW
14-18 NOW is a major cultural programme taking place across the United Kingdom to mark the centenary of the First World War. Perceptions of the war have been shaped to a great extent by the artists of the time, including poets, writers, painters, sculptors, photographers and film-makers, many of whom served, and who reflected on the war and its effects. Their work had a profound and lasting impact. Now, one hundred years later, 14-18 NOW invites contemporary artists from the UK and around the world to explore the resonance of the First World War today. Working with cultural organisations across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 14-18 NOW commissions large-scale special projects. These are selected to encourage people from every community to reflect on how the First World War has shaped today’s world and our attitudes to conflict now. Many of the events are free, and an interactive website is designed to encourage the active participation of young people. Events are taking place on both a national and regional scale, across all art-forms and digital media.
The programme runs for three years; 2014, 2016 and 2018. For each of these key dates, 14-18 NOW presents a season of commissioned events around the UK over 6-8 weeks.
14-18 NOW is an independent programme hosted within Imperial War Museums and receives public funding from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England.
Further information can be found at www.1418now.org.uk/about/
About Tate Britain
Tate Britain is home to the world’s greatest collection of British art. One of four Tate galleries around the UK, its exhibitions, displays and commissions tell the story of British art from the 1500s to the present day. It is located next to the former Queen Alexandra’s Military Hospital, which opened in 1905 and was used to treat wounded soldiers during the First World War. Since the closure of the hospital, the existing buildings now house Tate’s administration offices.