Image: Tate Modern, London
Tarek Atoui's Hyundai Commission opens in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London on October 13, 2026, and remains in place until April 11, 2027. It is the 11th work in the annual series supported by Hyundai Motor, in which one artist each year is invited to make a new piece for the vast industrial space. According to Tate, the commissions have drawn more than 19 million visitors over the past decade.
Atoui, born in Beirut in 1980 and based between Paris and Beirut, works as both artist and composer. His performances and installations question how sound is perceived, and they grow out of research into the history of music, instrument-making and production. Tate describes his environments as combining music, technology, sculpture and performance. A central part of his practice is building instruments with other artists, composers and makers, objects that can be played and also stand as sculpture. His practice is developed through sustained collaborations with local communities and specialists and includes social research.
The installation also doubles as a stage. Throughout the run, the Turbine Hall will regularly host live sound performances by musicians Atoui has invited from a range of genres to compose, improvise and play there. Depending on the session, performers may treat the installation as a sound system, as a set of instruments, or as an acoustic environment to play inside. Tate presents gathering, collaboration and collective listening as central to this programme.
The first two sessions take place on the evenings of October 16 and 17, when Atoui is joined by four acts for an improvised set of voice, electronics and instruments. Emptyset is the Bristol project of James Ginzburg and Paul Purgas, whose work draws on electronic music, spatial acoustics, computer music and self-built instruments. Mazen Kerbaj, a Lebanese comics author, visual artist and trumpeter based in Berlin, co-founded the improvised-music festival Irtijal and the label Al Maslakh in 2001. Kenichi Iwasa improvises with brass, woodwinds, hand-built instruments and live sampling, and has worked with Daniel Blumberg, Jesse Kanda and Beatrice Dillon. Aya Metwalli, a composer and vocalist born in Cairo in 1988, works between microtonal Arabic maqam and Western contemporary music.
Tate is also offering audio-described and touch tours of the commission for blind and partially sighted visitors. In the autumn issue of Tate Etc., Atoui discusses the project in conversation with the artist Abbas Zahedi.
The commission is presented in partnership with Hyundai Motor, with support from the Tarek Atoui Supporters Circle and Tate Americas Foundation.
