- Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold, the 11th Hyundai Commission, presents a major new multisensory installation by artist and composer Tarek Atoui
- Combining sculpture, performance, music, technology and social research, Atoui’s Hyundai Commission creates environments where sound is experienced through the whole body and situates Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall as a site for encounter and exchange
- Hyundai Motor's long-term partnership with Tate continues to support artistic innovation and expand public access to contemporary art, fostering meaningful dialogue and collaboration
Press material
Hyundai Motor Company and Tate Modern announce the opening of Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold, a major new multisensory installation by artist and composer Tarek Atoui. Combining sculpture, performance, music, technology and social research, Atoui creates environments where sound is experienced not only through the ears, but through the whole body. For his Hyundai Commission, he has transformed Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall into an immersive sonic landscape comprising custom-built wind instruments, percussion, electronics and sculptural objects, woven together to make an orchestra which connects the earth and sky. Through participation and performance, this living environment will constantly evolve throughout the run of the commission.
Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold marks the 11th annual Hyundai Commission and inaugurates the next decade of the Hyundai Motor and Tate partnership extending through 2036. Established in 2014, the partnership represents the longest initial commitment from a corporate partner in Tate's history, encompassing the Hyundai Commission and, since 2019, the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational.
Atoui's Hyundai Commission is the culmination of over two decades of experimentation, including collaborations with musicians, instrument-makers, engineers and researchers across Asia and Europe. Drawing on these projects, he reimagines shengs, Korean drums, Uzbek horns and custom-built electronic systems.
Hanging above the Turbine Hall ramp, a metal karnai (a ceremonial brass trumpet from Uzbekistan) is joined by two 3D-printed horns that echo and amplify the instrument’s elongated form. At the far end of the hall, drum skins, gongs, horns, stones and 20m long textiles are suspended among a network of bamboo and shengs (mouth organs from China and Southeast Asia), through which wind is channeled by a computer-controlled motor. In making the work, Atoui has responded to the extraordinary height, airflows and acoustic character of the Turbine Hall. Lithophone-like stones and warm lights invite visitors to sit, lie, gaze up, and attune themselves to the relationship between sound, materials, architecture and bodies. Drawing on the artist’s memories of gathering places, from vine-covered canopies to sheltered courtyards, Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold situates the Turbine Hall as a site for encounter and exchange.
Microphones embedded within the installation sample the sounds produced by the instruments and the bustling backdrop of the Turbine Hall, with custom software reworking and playing them back as layers of the composition. Foregrounding the importance of improvisation in Atoui's practice, these elements contribute to an ever-changing soundscape.
Throughout the six-month duration of the Hyundai Commission, the Turbine Hall will regularly become a site for live sound-based performances, where a network of musicians will 'plug into' Atoui's installation as a sound system. The program will platform both local and international musicians – from instrumentalists to electronic artists, collectives and labels – highlighting the work of Atoui's longstanding collaborators and fostering new connections.
Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold creates new forms of connection through sound, bringing together diverse cultures and communities. Through his multisensory and collaborative practice, Atoui invites meaningful exchange and collective reflection on our contemporary world.
The annual Hyundai Commission has attracted over 21.6 million visitors and established a platform for some of the most bold and memorable artworks of the past decade – from Kara Walker's spectacular fountain to Anicka Yi's floating artificial lifeforms. By extending the partnership until 2036, Hyundai Motor and Tate reaffirm their shared, long-term commitment to artistic innovation and public access to contemporary art.
Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold
October 13, 2026 – April 11, 2027, Tate Modern
In partnership with Hyundai Motor
