Tarek Atoui is a sound artist and composer whose installations change how we experience sound, not only through our ears but through our whole bodies. For the Hyundai Commission, Atoui transforms the Turbine Hall into a vast sonic landscape, bringing ancient families of instruments into dialogue with electronic technologies. Inspired by the unique acoustic and spatial properties of the Turbine Hall, the commission builds on decades of Atoui’s collaboration with instrument-makers, researchers, engineers and musicians.
Wind is channelled through a suspended network of bamboo pipes, playing shengs, mouth organs from China and Southeast Asia, in chorus. Korean drums struck by mechanised mallets are dispersed throughout the space alongside Uzbek karnai horns and 3D-printed horns made from sugar resin and bamboo dust. Textiles up to 30 metres long oscillate in response to wind currents of the Turbine Hall., Each material generates and transmits sound in a different way. Microphones embedded within the installation sample the sounds of the instruments and the Turbine Hall itself. Custom software developed by the artist reworks these sounds and plays them back into the space alongside the instruments, so the soundscape is always changing and no two visits are the same.
Atoui invites visitors to wander at their own pace, sit or lie on stones placed along the ground, and experience them vibrate with sound. Building on childhood memories of time spent under vine-covered canopies and sheltered courtyards across the Mediterranean, Atoui imagines the Turbine Hall as a space of gathering and exchange.
Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui is in partnership with Hyundai Motor. Supported by the Tarek Atoui Supporters Circle and Tate Americas Foundation.
Performances
The installation regularly transforms into a space for performance over the course of the commission. Atoui has invited a network of musicians across multiple genres to plug into the installation as a sound system and compose, improvise and play:
Sessions 1 and 2: 16 and 17 October: Tarek Atoui, Emptyset, Mazen Kerbaj, Kenichi Iwasa and Aya Metwalli
Session 3: 13 November: Bendik Giske, Valentina Magaletti
Session 4: 27 November: Nkisi, Mhmad Safa
Session 5: 11 December: Elvin Brandhi, Gwilly Edmondez, Theodora Laird, Phil Minton, Elaine Mitchener, Maggie Nichols, Dylan Nyoukis, Saadet Türköz
Session 6: 15 January: Shakeeb Abu Hamdan, Li-Chin Li, Pike
Session 7: 19 February
Session 8: 19 March
Session 9: 2 April
The performances are free with a ticket. Sessions 1 and 2 are now booking, future sessions will be booking soon.
Exhibition guide
Learn more about this installation with our exhibition guide.
Accessibility
All Tate Modern entrances are step-free. You can enter via the Turbine Hall and into the Natalie Bell Building on Holland Street, or into the Blavatnik Building on Sumner street.
There are lifts to every floor of the Blavatnik and Natalie Bell buildings. Alternatively you can take the stairs.
- Fully accessible toilets are located on every floor on the concourses.
- A quiet room is available to use in the Natalie Bell Building on Level 4.
- Ear defenders can be borrowed from the Ticket desks.
To help plan your visit to Tate Modern, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information about what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.
For more information before your visit:
- Email hello@tate.org.uk
- Call +44 (0)20 7887 8888 (daily 10.00–17.00)
