The Tate Modern’s ‘Tanks’ Open To The Public Today

Down below the galleries of the Tate Modern, a new space has been revealed today, the ‘Tanks’.

Originally the fuel stores for the turbines of the power station, these  circular spaces add three huge new areas to the gallery. Each is 30 metres wide and 7 metres high, having been renewed and redesigned by the team of Herzog & de Meuron, who were responsible for Beijing’s ‘Birds nest’ stadium. The ‘Tanks’ will house interactive artworks and will also allow for live performance, which isn’t possible in the hushed spaces of the galleries above.

The first three artists to occupy the ‘Tanks’ (as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad – although that label seems to be slapped on anything vaguely arts-related happening in town right now!) are:

• 18 July – 20 July: Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, with her work ‘Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich’ – a dance piece in four movements which seeks to illustrate the relationship between music and dance. From Wednesday to Friday, the individual sections of the piece will be performed throughout the day, with hour-long full performances taking place on Thursday and Friday evenings.
• 24 July – 29 July: Ei Arakawa – ‘JOY OF LIFE’ and ‘SINGLE’S NIGHT’. Accompanied by slide shows of several artists projected onto the walls of the tank this work looks at post-war Japanese Art. ‘JOY OF LIFE’ is a workshop on art history, while ‘SINGLES NIGHT’ is an invitation for visitors to dance to the music of Jutta Koether and to watch a screening of ‘Fukishima Hula Girls’, created this year, which will be accompanied by dance and improvisation.
• 30 July – 15 August: Tania Bruguera’s ‘Immigrant Movement International’. The focus of Brugera’s work, a Cuban national who lives in New York,  is immigration and national identity. Visitors will able to examine her manifesto, investigate the ‘Immigrant Respect Awareness Campaign’ and look at the effects of  the work that she and other artists undertook on 18 December 2001 (the UN’s International Migrants Day).

Some of the upcoming events in the Tate Modern’s ‘Tanks’ are free while others are ticketed – take a look at the full programme here for more information.