BMW Tate Live part of the opening programme of the new Tate Modern. New building opens today.

London. Today, Tate Modern’s new building opens its doors to the public: The already existing Boiler House has received an addition with the new Switch House – the most important new cultural building in Britain for almost 20 years. As part of the opening programme, the museum will showcase from 17 June to 3 July 2016 three weeks of live art. The free programme happens within the framework of BMW Tate Live, a partnership between BMW and Tate, and highlights the increasingly important role of live actions and participatory experiences in the museum of the 21st century.

Tate Modern opened to the public in May 2000. Located in the former Bankside Power Station, it is the world’s most popular museum of modern and contemporary art. With around 5 million visitors each year, the number of visitors is more than double the number for which the building was originally designed. The spectacular new 10-storey building Switch House, designed by internationally renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, adds 60% more space and will open up the museum to the area around it. With amongst others additional floors of gallery space and a public terrace offering 360-degree panoramic views of London, the building is rooted in the underground so-called Tanks, the world’s first museum spaces dedicated to live art, installation and film.

The BMW Tate Live programme is staged across the whole new building complex in the opening weeks.

Visitors intermittently encounter works that are performed and experienced in real time throughout Tate Modern’s new displays, such as Tania Bruguera’s “Tatlin’s Whisper #5” (2008) with police officers on horseback or Tino Sehgal’s “This is Propaganda” (2002), in which a gallery attendant suddenly begins to sing. The Tanks house three classic 1960s sculptures by Robert Morris, Rasheed Araeen and Charlotte Posenenske that visitors can bring back to life.

As part of the same display, The Tanks also showcase two new performance commissions running daily. Tarek Atoui presents a new chapter in his ongoing work “The Reverse Collection”, consisting of ten specially-designed instruments played each day by a group of musician with the performances processed into a sound installation. In 2014, BMW, as a partner of the eighth Berlin Biennale, made his “Dahlem Sessions” possible. Alexandra Pirici and Manuel Pelmuş show their work “Public Collection Tate Modern” in which a group of five dancers perform live versions of familiar works of art as a repeated cycle – the idea of a collection of artworks as a fleeting, ephemeral act.

BMW Tate Live

BMW Tate Live is a long-term partnership between BMW and Tate that features innovative live art, both in-gallery and online. BMW Tate Live aims to reach an international audience through new forms of art, addressing audiences changing needs, tastes and interests in art. The initiative creates a new space for collaboration and a programme that encompasses performance, film, sound, installation and learning – areas where artists can take greater risks and experiment freely. The programme aims to provoke debate on how art can affect intellectual, social and physical change.

About BMW Group’s Cultural Commitment

For almost 50 years now, the BMW Group has initiated and engaged in over 100 cultural cooperations worldwide. The company places the main focus of its long-term commitment on contemporary and modern art, classical music and jazz as well as architecture and design. In 1972, three large-scale paintings were created by the artist Gerhard Richter specifically for the foyer of the BMW Group's Munich headquarters. Since then, artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Daniel Barenboim, Jonas Kaufmann and architect Zaha Hadid have co-operated with BMW. Currently, female artist Cao Fei from China and American John Baldessari are creating the next two vehicles for the BMW Art Car Collection. Besides co-initiatives, such as BMW Tate Live, the BMW Art Journey and the “Opera for All” concerts in Berlin, Munich and London, the company also partners with leading museums and art fairs as well as orchestras and opera houses around the world. The BMW Group takes absolute creative freedom in all its cultural activities – as this initiative is as essential for producing groundbreaking artistic work as it is for major innovations in a successful business.

The BMW Group

With its three brands BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, the BMW Group is the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles and also provides premium financial and mobility services. As a global company, the BMW Group operates 31 production and assembly facilities in 14 countries and has a global sales network in more than 140 countries.

In 2015, the BMW Group sold approximately 2.247 million cars and nearly 137,000 motorcycles worldwide. The profit before tax for the financial year 2015 was approximately € 9.22 billion on revenues amounting to € 92.18 billion. As of 31 December 2015, the BMW Group had a workforce of 122,244 employees.

The success of the BMW Group has always been based on long-term thinking and responsible action. The company has therefore established ecological and social sustainability throughout the value chain, comprehensive product responsibility and a clear commitment to conserving resources as an integral part of its strategy.

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