Tarek Atoui Turns Tate Modern's Turbine Hall Into a Giant Instrument

Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui has turned the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London into a giant listening space called Hold.

It opens to the public on 13 October 2026 and runs to 11 April 2027, according to Tate. Hold is a sonic installation, a work built around sound, made with custom-built instruments that answer back to the huge atrium.

You hear it first. Visitors coming into Tate Modern from the west and walking down the ramp meet three horns that announce the commission, Atoui told The Art Newspaper. The horns shape and throw sound across the concrete expanse. Listen for a moment and the room starts to play you.

One voice will be familiar to followers of his work. Atoui has brought back the karnai, a long trumpet from Uzbekistan, which he used a year ago for the Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan. The other horns were made for London in collaboration with the Arthur Mamou-Mani architecture office in London.

Atoui said the hall felt less like a cathedral and more like a silo or big industrial space. That reading shaped the build. Instead of filling the void, he has treated it as a vessel that holds and moves sound.

Hold is the 11th Hyundai Commission, the annual series in which South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor supports an artist to respond to the Turbine Hall. It is the most sound-led work for the space since Raw Materials by American artist Bruce Nauman in 2004.

It will not sit still. Tate says the installation will regularly become a stage for live, sound-based performances across its six-month run. Dates are listed on Tate Modern's Sessions pages.

Atoui, described by Tate as an artist and electroacoustic composer, a composer working with electronic and everyday acoustic sound, is known for multisensory installations built around instruments he invents himself. His source material has ranged from underwater explosions to PlayStation joysticks, as reported by The Guardian.

What makes this stand out is the invitation to touch and play. Many of Atoui's past projects let visitors handle his instruments. Here that idea meets industrial scale. Bring ears, and hands.