Tacita Dean to Follow Ai Weiwei as Tate’s Turbine Hall Artist

Tacita Dean, a British artist known for her work with film, has been commissioned to create the next installation for the lobby of London’s Tate Modern, Tate said.

From Oct. 11 2011, Dean will fill the Turbine Hall with her creation. She will come after China’s Ai Weiwei, who has paved the hall with 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds that can be seen -- though not walked on -- through May 2, 2011.

The commission is part of a series that Unilever is sponsoring for five years ending in 2012 to the tune of 2.16 million pounds ($3.43 million).

“We've never really had anyone who has approached the Turbine Hall from the point of view of filmmaking, and the role and importance of the camera in articulating and animating space,” said Tate Modern Chief Curator Sheena Wagstaff in an interview at a press lunch.

Dean -- born in 1965 in Canterbury -- was shortlisted in 1998 for the Turner Prize, the U.K.’s top contemporary-art award. Three years later, she got her own show at Tate Britain.

Her body of work frequently incorporates the sea, and links contemporary episodes with past tales and myths. The 1996 “Disappearance at Sea” was inspired by the life of the U.K. sailor Donald Crowhurst, who set off in 1968 on a solo voyage around the world and never came back.

Of the 11 artists preceding Dean in the Turbine Hall, Olafur Eliasson is among the most popular. His “The Weather Project” (2003-4) was a glowing representation of the sun.

Other participants in the Unilever series include Doris Salcedo, who, through April 2008, showed “Shibboleth,” a 167- meter crack in the concrete floor of the hall; and Carsten Hoeller, who installed slides between October 2006 and April 2007 that visitors could zip down.

The two British artists who have shown work in the Turbine Hall so far are Rachel Whiteread (2005-6) and Anish Kapoor (2002-3).

To contact the writer on the story: Farah Nayeri at farahn@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net

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Tacita Dean

Tate Images via Bloomberg.

Tacita Dean poses in front of a Christmas tree she decorated at Tate Britain. The artist will from October 2011 become the 12th to create a work for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern.

Tacita Dean poses in front of a Christmas tree she decorated at Tate Britain. The artist will from October 2011 become the 12th to create a work for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Source: Tate Images via Bloomberg.

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Ai Weiwei

Tate Britain via Bloomberg

Ai Weiwei. The installation "The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds" is on view at Tate Modern, London through May 2.

Ai Weiwei. The installation "The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds" is on view at Tate Modern, London through May 2. Source: Tate Britain via Bloomberg