TATE MODERN’S TURBINE HALL

When it comes to interacting with the soaring architecture of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, the art installations commissioned for the space over the years have had mixed success.

By Pamela Buxton

Everyone remembers the fun of Olafur Eliasson’s Weather installation with its mirrored ceiling. I particularly enjoyed Anish Kapoor’s Marsyas for the way it spread through the space like some strange, alien growth that was both beautiful and disturbing in equal measure. The latest commission, Bodyspacemotionthings –  a rather fantastic recreation of the 1971 interactive installation by Robert Morris – was another kettle of fish altogether. It wasn’t so much about interacting with the architecture of the building, but about visitors exploring their own spatial perceptions.

When it was originally shown at the Tate, the show caused great controversy for a public not used to interacting with the art. This time around, it’s a very different matter with the hall turned into a merry assembly of plywood structures that prove to be a popular playground for adults and children alike. It’s all a bit reminiscent of Carsten Holler’s famous slides, which provoked the general reaction of ‘great fun but is should it be in a gallery?’ But Bodyspacemotionthings at least, can make a stronger claim to the latter.

Plywood ramps, tightropes, narrowing tunnels, wobbly platforms, are all arranged invitingly for the public to clamber, balance, roll in, jump, push, and that’s exactly what they do, with great gusto, glee, and tremendous noise. There’s a ledge that gets narrower and narrower before vanishing completely, a wall to run up and slide down with a rope, and a platform on a pivot for groups to balance on. Yes, it’s play, but it’s also about experiencing and controlling space.

Nowadays, it’s strange to think that public participation in art was once radical – it’s so common in the work of artists such as Spencer Tunick and Antony Gormley’s current Fourth Plinth project. And as the Bodyspacemotionthings plywood is packed away, the Tate Modern can look back on another winning turbine hall installation. It might not have related much to the architecture of the hall but it succeeded in spades in public participation. Is it art? Some may well have taken away with them a new interest in spatial perception – who knows. But for sheer joy, this was hard to beat.

© Tate Photography