Poetry-encrusted kites, bespoke designed taxis and cash register roll streamers?! It can only mean one thing - the Tate Modern's tenth birthday bash of course!
I literally can't believe that it is almost ten years exactly since I first stepped into Tate Modern's Turbine Hall rocking the baby blue Reebok trainers, cropped combat trousers and t-shirt from Tammy Girl look (sadly I have the photographic evidence to prove it) on one of those aggravating summer holiday 'fun' family days. The kind when you were dragged on a stuffy tube and forced to look at art when really you just wanted to have a water fight in the garden and get a Mr Whippy with monkey's blood from the ice cream van. Louise Bourgeois' sculpture Maman was on display that day – or as I remember it – the gigantic spider. How time flies.
This May, Tate Modern turns ten, and to celebrate this momentous occasion, the gallery will host a free arts festival, No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independents. And do you know what? It looks like it might just give the spider a run for its money. The premise is genius: from 14th-16th May, Tate Modern will invite 60 of the world's most cutting edge independent art spaces, not-for-profit organisations and artists' collectives from across the globe to set up shop in the cavernous Turbine Hall. The three-day extravaganza promises to be a veritable feast of art, performance, music and film, with a sprinkling of late night fun, and special guests pencilled in for the nights of the 14th and 15th.
The whole shebang will take the form of an experimental, do-it-yourself pop-up village. Over the course of the three days the new issue of musician Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace Poetry Journal will be printed and designed to fly as a kite above the crush below, Kling and Bang Gallery will suspend a column of cash register rolls from the 40 metre high ceiling, a giant photo of a slice of pizza will be stuck to the floor, the gallery's signs will be translated into Chinese... The list goes on and on and on. This literally sounds amazing, and definitely well worth a visit. Fast forward a decade, and with any luck maybe this time I'll even remember the proper names of the artists and the exhibits and everything. Although I think I'll be leaving the Reebok Classics at home...
No Soul For Sale – A Festival of Independent runs from 14th-16th May at Tate Modern.
Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in London.
Return to Spoonfed's London Art homepage.
Image Courtesy: X Initiative.
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...