Tate Modern Turbine Hall

The Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London is a colossal 155-metre-long former power station space designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott that now displays world-famous art installations. The 35-metre-high hall features 524 roof glass panes and a 99-metre chimney. Major exhibits include Olafur Eliasson’s 2003 artificial sun, which drew two million visitors, and Doris Salcedo’s 2007 artwork, which left a permanent 548-foot scar in the concrete floor.

London · from the walk “The Artist's Thames” · audio ~4 min · Generated

Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG

Which artist carved a permanent 548-foot crack into the floor of Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2007?

As you walk along the Thames and approach this colossal brick building, I want you to pause for a moment... and really Look at it. Because what you're seeing is one of the most extraordinary artistic transformations of the twentieth century.......... This building was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott — the same architect behind Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, the iconic red telephone box, and Battersea Power Station. Think about that range for a moment. From a telephone box you can hold in your arms... to this.......... Scott's original design actually called for Two chimneys, but the final structure has just one — standing ninety-nine metres tall, deliberately shorter than the one hundred and fourteen-metre dome of Saint Paul's Cathedral directly across the river. Why? Because even a power station had to bow to the spiritual skyline of London. Concerns were raised about the impact on cherished views of the cathedral's dome. But Scott won support for the project, prompting the Evening Standard to joke that "Saint Paul's might spoil the view of the Power Station."

...... Now step inside. The Turbine Hall stretches one hundred and fifty-five metres long and thirty-five metres high — a cathedral-like void where electricity generators once roared. Light pours through five hundred and twenty-four glass panes in the roof. As a visual artist, what matters here is how this raw industrial skeleton became the Ultimate canvas.......... The very first commission was by Louise Bourgeois — her piece "I Do, I Undo, I Redo," with three steel towers nine metres high, envisioned as stages for intimate encounters between strangers. And Maman — her monumental steel spider — was made specifically for this opening.......... But here's what truly changed everything. In two thousand and three, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson created "The Weather Project" — a glowing artificial sun that drew Two Million people, who lay on the floor gazing up at themselves reflected in a mirrored ceiling. And the astonishing secret? It was made from the humblest materials — monofrequency lights, haze machines, mirror foil, aluminium and scaffolding. People spelled out "Bush go home" on the floor as a protest when the American president visited London.......... Now... look down at the floor as you walk. Can you see it? A faint, winding line running the length of the hall? In two thousand and seven, Colombian artist Doris Salcedo carved a five hundred and forty-eight foot crack into this very concrete — her piece "Shibboleth." When the exhibition ended, the crack was filled with concrete, but the scar remains in the architecture, still visible to this day. It is the Only Turbine Hall commission that permanently altered the building. It represents borders, the experience of immigrants, the experience of segregation, the experience of racial hatred.......... Since two thousand, over sixty million visitors have experienced this space. Every year, one artist faces this vast emptiness and must answer the same impossible question... How do you fill a cathedral built for machines... with meaning?

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