After 13 successive Turbine Hall annual commissions at the Tate Modern, Unilever has ended their sponsorship of the program causing the institution to seek new sponsorship.  Since 2000, Unilever has sponsored commissions including Olafur Eliasson’s The Weather Project, 2003-04, Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth, 2007-08, and Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei, 2010-2011. Unilever’s sponsorship deal runs through 2013, after which, they will remain on board as a corporate member. The Tate is now beginning discussions concerning sponsorship from 2014 onward.

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Tino Sehgal via The Independent

Anglo-German artist Tino Sehgal opened ‘These Associations’ in the Tate Modern‘s Turbine Hall yesterday. As the 13th Unilever Commission, the performance art installation is the museum’s first live commission. ‘These Associations’ features shifts of around 50 participants at a time, partaking in different games, dances, and social interactions designed by Sehgal.

Turbine Hall, the venue for ‘These Associations’ via BBC News

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Unilever‘s sponsorship of the Tate Modern‘s yearly art installation in the Turbine Hall has expired. The decision for renewal will be put on hold, as the venue is set to close for construction in 2013.

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Turbine Hall, Tate Modern. Via ArtInfo

Tacita Dean will take over Tate Modern‘s Turbine Hall on October 11, 2011. As the 12th artist in the Unilever-sponsored series, she will replace Ai Weiwei‘s floor of Sunflower Seeds. Though she is best known for her work with 16mm film, she uses other mediums as well, including found objects, photography, drawing, and sound. Tate Modern’s chief curator, Sheena Wagstaff, has expressed excitement over the commissioned work’s outcome; in regards to Dean, “Her interest in light, space and history, as well as her keen sense of the cinematic and the sublime, make her a perfect choice.”

Tacita Dean. Via Bloomberg

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Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s installation TH.2058 at Tate Modern in London via The Independent.

The Tate Modern, London is currently displaying its ninth Turbine Hall installation by French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. The installation is inspired by the artist’s vision of an apocalyptic London 50 years into the future. The work aptly named TH.2058 imagines the city under siege by flooding, bombing, and invasion, its residents forced to take shelter in the Tate’s Turbine Hall in order to escape the never-ending rain. Gonzalez-Foerester has filled the hall with rows of of bunk beds scattered with science-fiction novels such as George Orwell’s 1984 and Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. A literal homage to the writings that helped inspire the work. The beds are pinned beneath giant replicas of sculptures previously housed in the Tate, including a gigantic duplicate of a spider by Louise Bourgeois and a colossal copy of Alexander Calder’s pink flamingo. A screen hangs over the end of the space and displays what Gonzalez-Foerester calls The Last Film; a montage of science fiction clips from Planet of the Apes, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Solaris among others. All of this coupled with the constant sound of rain. The piece was inspired not only by science-fiction works but also by the 2005 London subway bombings that killed 52 and the 1940-41 bombings of Britain by the Nazi’s.

Catastrophe at the Tate: new installation sees future world as a disaster shelter [Guardian UK]
Art Refuge [Financial Times]
Apocalyptic vision of London comes to Tate Modern [The Associated Press]
Tate’s vision of a London under fire [The Independent]
Bunk beds fill Tate Turbine Hall [BBC News]
Bed and bored in Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s chamber of horrors [TimesOnlineUK]
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