Tarek Atoui’s Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall regularly transforms into a space for live sound-based performances across its six-month duration. Atoui has invited musicians from across multiple genres to compose, improvise and play, bringing their distinct approaches to sound into the Turbine Hall.
Each performance will create a different relationship between the musicians and the installation, from using it as a sound system or a series of instruments, to performing within its sonic environment.
For the first two sessions, musicians Emptyset, Mazen Kerbaj, Kenichi Iwasa and Aya Metwalli join Tarek Atoui to bring together voice, electronics and instruments into an improvised set.
The live programme situates gathering, collaboration and collective listening and at the heart of the commission.
Hyundai Commission is in partnership with Hyundai Motor. Supported by the Tarek Atoui Supporters Circle and Tate Americas Foundation.
Tarek Atoui
Born in Beirut in 1980, and based between Paris and Beirut, Tarek Atoui creates environments where sound becomes a way of learning, connecting and imagining new forms of living together. His practice, developed through sustained collaborations with local communities and specialists, combines sculpture, performance, music, technology and social research.
Emptyset
Emptyset is a collaborative sound and performance project from Bristol developed by James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas. Their multimedia output is rooted in the interwoven lineages of electronic music and experimental media, spanning the fields of architectural and spatial acoustics, embodied sound, electronic improvisation, computer music and self-designed instruments.
Mazen Kerbaj
Mazen Kerbaj is a Berlin-based Lebanese comics author, visual artist, and musician. He co-founded Irtijal and Al Maslakh in 2001, the region’s first festival and label for improvised and experimental music. In 2021, he co-founded Graphème, a yearly publication for experimental music scores. As a trumpeter, he deconstructs the instrument beyond recognition.
Kenichi Iwasa
Kenichi Iwasa is an interdisciplinary improviser blending acoustic and electronic elements: brass, woodwinds, hand built instruments, live sampling, and sound manipulation, into evolving soundscapes built from gathered tones. He's collaborated with artists like Daniel Blumberg, Jesse Kanda, and Beatrice Dillon, and performed at venues including Somerset House, Cafe OTO, Bourse de Commerce, and Moderna Museet Malmö.
Aya Metwalli
Aya Metwalli (b. 1988, Cairo) is a composer and vocalist bridging microtonal Arabic maqam and Western contemporary music. Known for expressionism and lament, she channels Cairo's sonic grit into her live shows. Her experimental vocal work fuses tradition with avant-garde, delivering a deeply confessional performance wrapped in a cellophane of tristesse.
You are welcome to move around the space and to come and go for the duration of the performance.
There will be fluctuations in sound levels throughout the performance, ear defenders will be available for those who would like them.
Spaces will be reserved for wheelchair users and companions. Please let us know if you would like a space reserved for you.
We will provide cushions to sit on the floor, there will also be some additional hard seating and folding stools for the performance.
The space will be cold, so please dress warmly. The performance takes place in the Turbine Hall.
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)
