Art comes to life: Announcement of new BMW Tate Live programme. Three weeks of live art across Tate Modern with the opening of the new building.

London. The new Tate Modern will open with three
weeks of live art, highlighting the place of performance in the 21st
century museum. As part of the ongoing partnership BMW Tate Live, the
museum will showcase from 17 June to 3 July the increasingly important
role of live actions and participatory experiences for artists working
today. The free BMW Tate Live programme will include live works
acquired for Tate’s collection as well as new commissions by
international artists, staged across the museum. Now in its fifth
year, the partnership between Tate and BMW has enabled major
large-scale events, live-streamed online performances, workshops and
conferences since 2012. In 2017, Tate and BMW will continue to work
together with an annual “live exhibition” held in the Tanks in Tate Modern.

 

Dr Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, said:
“We view BMW Tate Live with pride and together with Tate, we will
continue to offer personal experiences to people who want to engage
fully with the arts and give performance art a platform both in the
museum and online. The project brings innovative artistic concepts to
a broader public and makes art accessible in a new way. That is a
great achievement and I would like to take this opportunity to thank
Tate for working with us side by side; I look forward to an exciting
future for our joint initiative.”

 

Sir Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate Modern said: “When we open the
new Tate Modern in June 2016, we will be creating a new museum for the
21st century that reflects a truly international view of art. This
exciting public building will add a new dimension to UK cultural life.
It will give everyone an opportunity to see how the nation’s
collection of modern and contemporary art has been transformed, and to
experience what a powerful role art can play in all our lives.”

 

Frances Morris, Director, Tate Modern said: “Having enjoyed building
Tate’s collection of international art, I can’t wait to see so many
new works going on show at Tate Modern in our completely new displays.
The dramatic and beautiful new spaces we have available – from the raw
industrial Tanks to the refined galleries in the Switch House above –
give us an opportunity to tell the story of modern art in fresh and
exciting ways. I hope everyone who comes to see Tate Modern this
summer will enjoy seeing some of their favourite works, some new
surprises and some icons of the future.”

 

Since Tate Modern first opened in 2000, the national collection of
modern and contemporary art has been transformed to reflect the many
ways artists now work. This has included acquiring works that are
performed and experienced in real time. In June 2016, visitors will
encounter such works as they take place intermittently throughout Tate
Modern’s new displays. Police officers on horseback will corral
visitors in the Turbine Hall in Tania Bruguera’s provocative “Tatlin’s
Whisper #5” (2008), while participants in David Lamelas’ “Time” (1970)
will line-up on the entrance ramp and announce the time of day to each
other in turn. In the Boiler House, the current Tate Modern building,
Tino Sehgal’s “This is Propaganda” (2002) – in which someone who
appears to be a gallery attendant suddenly begins to sing – will be
found alongside the work of Joseph Beuys. In the Switch House, the new
addition to the Tate Modern building, surrounded by the work of Lygia
Clark, Mike Kelley and Bruce Nauman, Amalica Pica’s “Strangers” (2008)
will be performed by two actors holding opposite ends of a string of
bunting. Elsewhere, visitors will come across a mysterious queue of
people that appears to lead nowhere: Roman Ondak’s “Good Feelings for
Good Times” (2003).

 

The Tanks, the world’s first museum spaces dedicated to live art,
film and installation will house three classic 1960s sculptures which
radically challenged the relationship between art and audiences. Three
variations on minimal cubes, by Robert Morris, Rasheed Araeen and
Charlotte Posenenske will be brought back to life as sculptures to be
walked around, entered or rearranged as originally intended by the
artists half a century ago.

 

As part of the same display, The Tanks will also showcase two new
performance commissions running daily through the opening three weeks.
These commissions challenge the idea of the artwork as a material
object and open up ideas of transformation and play. Tarek Atoui will
present a new chapter in his ongoing work “The Reverse Collection”,
consisting of ten specially-designed instruments played each day by a
group of musicians. These performances will be recorded and layered
over time to create an increasingly rich installation of sounds and
objects. Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmuş will present “Public
Collection Tate Modern” in which a group of five dancers perform live
versions of familiar works of art as a repeated cycle. Acting out
‘equivalents’ of paintings, sculptures and installations as a series
of poses, this work transforms the idea of a collection of
artworks into a fleeting, ephemeral act.

 

BMW Tate Live

BMW Tate Live is a long-term partnership between BMW and Tate
that features innovative live art, both in-gallery and online. BMW
Tate Live aims to reach an international audience through new forms of
art, addressing audiences changing needs, tastes and interests in art.
The initiative creates a new space for collaboration and a programme
that encompasses performance, film, sound, installation and
learning – areas where artists can take greater risks and experiment
freely. The programme aims to provoke debate on how art can affect
intellectual, social and physical change. More information at www.tate.org.uk/bmwtatelive

 

About BMW’s Cultural Commitment

For more than 40 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged
in over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the
main focus of its long-term commitment on modern and contemporary art,
jazz and classical music as well as architecture and design. In 1972,
three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter
specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group’s Munich headquarters.
Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Olafur
Eliasson, Jeff Koons, Zubin Metha, Daniel Barenboim and Anna Netrebko
have co-operated with BMW. The company has also commissioned famous
architects such as Karl Schwanzer, Zaha Hadid and Coop Himmelb(l)au to
design important corporate buildings and plants. In 2011, the BMW
Guggenheim Lab, a global initiative of the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum and the BMW Group celebrated its
world premiere in New York. The BMW Group takes absolute creative
freedom in all its cultural activities – as this initiative is as
essential for producing groundbreaking artistic work as it is for
major innovations in a successful business.

Further information:
www.bmwgroup.com/culture

and
www.bmwgroup.com/culture/overview

 

 

For further questions please contact:

 

Dr. Thomas Girst

BMW Group Corporate and Governmental Affairs

Head of Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49 89-382-24753, Fax: +49 89-382-10881

 

Leonie Laskowski

BMW Group Corporate and Intergovernmental Affairs

Cultural Engagement

Telephone: +49-89-382-45382

 

Duncan Holden

Press Officer, Tate

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7887 4939, E-mail:
pressoffice@tate.org.uk

 

www.press.bmwgroup.com

Email:
presse@bmw.de

 

The BMW Group

With its three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group is the
world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles
and also provides premium financial and mobility services. As a global
company, the BMW Group operates 30 production and assembly facilities
in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

 

In 2015, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.247 million cars and
nearly 137,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the
financial year 2015 was approximately € 9.22 billion on revenues
amounting to € 92.18 billion. As of 31 December 2015, the BMW Group
had a workforce of 122,244 employees.

 

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term
thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established
ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain,
comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to
conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.

 


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