El Anatsui as Next Hyundai Commission Artist – Hyundai Motor Company and Tate Modern today declared that distinguished artist El Anatsui will make the next annual Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. Repurposing recovered materials into dazzling works of abstract art, Anatsui’s work explores themes that include the environment, consumption and trade.
Open to the general public from October 10, 2023 to April 14, 2024, Hyundai Commission: El Anatsui will be the eighth in an annual series of site-specific works created for the Turbine Hall by renowned international artists as part of a unique partnership between Tate and Hyundai Motor.
El Anatsui
El Anatsui (born in Anyako, Ghana in 1944) is best-known for his cascading metallic sculptures created of thousands of recycled bottle tops articulated with copper wire. Over a long-lasting and distinguished career as both artist and educator; serving as Professor of Sculpture and Departmental Head at the University of Nigeria. Anatsui has developed a highly experimental approach to sculpture, embracing a wide range of forms and materials, including ceramics, wood and other found objects. El Anatsui has experimented with liquor bottle tops since the late 1990s and continues to push the medium’s limit in novel ways, creating radical, transformative sculptures that assume new shapes with every installation.
“El Anatsui’s works are distinguished by his dedication to exploring the transformative potential of art and his attention to histories. We look forward to seeing how El Anatsui transforms the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern for the eighth Hyundai Commission.”
DooEun Choi, Art Director, Hyundai Motor Company
“El Anatsui is responsible for some of the most unique and unforgettable sculptures in recent times and we are delighted that he will tackle the Turbine Hall this autumn for the annual Hyundai Commission. Anatsui’s much-loved Ink Splash II 2012 in Tate’s collection enchants visitors wherever it’s shown, and we can’t wait to see how this inventive artist will approach a space like the Turbine Hall.”
Frances Morris, Director, Tate Modern
The annual Hyundai Commission grants artists an opportunity to make new work for the Turbine Hall, a vast space that has hosted some of the world’s most memorable and acclaimed works of contemporary art since Tate Modern opened in 2000.
Hyundai Motor’s partnership with Tate, confirmed until 2026, is significant not only because it is the longest initial commitment from a corporate partner in Tate’s history, but also due to the shared vision between Hyundai and Tate to encourage new perspectives and ideas that create dialogue between artists, audiences and global communities.
In addition to the Hyundai Commission, Hyundai Motor assists the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational through its partnership with Tate. The Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, was launched in January 2019, continues to assist challenge and revise dominant art histories and highlight global exchanges of artists and ideas.
