Tarek Atoui's Hold Turns Tate Modern's Turbine Hall Into Sound
Tate Modern in London has handed its vast Turbine Hall over to sound.
Hold, by Lebanese artist and composer Tarek Atoui, opens to the public on 13 October 2026 and runs until 11 April 2027. It is the 11th Hyundai Commission, Tate's annual invitation for an artist to make a new large-scale work for the hall. Tate
For this edition, Atoui has transformed the concrete atrium into a vast sonic landscape, according to Tate's listing. Tate There is no single object to stand in front of and no quiet route around it. You walk inside the sound itself.
Listen first. Walk second.
Atoui described the Turbine Hall as a sound vessel in an interview with The Art Newspaper. The Art Newspaper It is a big, hard, echoing space, and his answer was to build bespoke instruments, meaning custom-made tools for making sound, designed to respond to its size and shape.
That building work draws on long research into music history, instrumentation and production. The point is not a new gadget for its own sake. Each instrument is tuned to the hall, so the room helps decide how it sounds.
He did not build it to play alone. Atoui invited a network of musicians working across many genres to take part in the commission. They can plug into the installation as if it were a sound system, using it to compose, improvise and play.
The hall will not stay fixed. Across its six-month run it will regularly change into a space for live sound-based performances. Tate has organised the live programme as a series of sessions where guest players test the instruments in public. Tate
Tate announced Atoui, who is Lebanese, as its choice for the commission in January. The title for the Turbine Hall work, Hold, was confirmed by the museum this month. Tate
What makes this stand out is simple. Most Turbine Hall commissions fill your eyes. This one asks for your ears. For visitors, this means no quick shuffle past on the way to the galleries. Expect hum, rhythm and vibration under your feet, and expect a different visit each time musicians take over the floor.
