Editors' Letter
Happy 25th Birthday, Tate Modern!
Within a quarter of a century, what was once a fully operational power station has become one of the largest and most renowned museums of modern and contemporary art in the world.
From its very beginning, the gallery has defied convention, eschewing a chronological model of art history for one that is more thematic, imaginative and representative of the complex global connections that characterise art today. As Tate Director Maria Balshaw and Tate Modern Director Karin Hindsbo write in their introduction to our behind-the-scenes feature: ‘Considering multiple histories, instead of a single, dominant narrative, became an immediate and enduring hallmark of Tate Modern’s programme, disrupting and revitalising how we engage with art’.
Since the year 2000, right up to 2025, Tate Modern has established itself as a ‘living museum’ – not just a storehouse for treasures but a place to gather and to foster conversations between people across space and time. Do Ho Suh’s intricate architectural artworks, soon to go on display at Tate Modern, echo this sentiment, layering many disparate geographies in an attempt to locate his ‘perfect home’, as he tells fellow artist Janice Kerbel.
The idea of art as a catalyst for unexpected connections is not restricted to Tate Modern: Ed Atkins’s hyperreal animations, opening at Tate Britain in April, pit a weightless digital world against physical reality, while Tate St Ives hosts a survey of Liliane Lijn and her compelling attempts to ‘visualise the invisible’.
Before we go, be sure to pencil in 9–12 May for Tate Modern’s Big Weekender, where you can encounter many of the artworks featured in these pages and experience the living museum for yourself.
Tate Etc.
© Farah Al Qasimi
Farah Al Qasimi’s cover was inspired by children’s responses to Matisse’s The Snail 1953. ’My work often involves obsessive studies of a form. How many ways are there to represent a heart, or a rose? I collected images of snails and spirals, and recreated its rough form.’
