Herzog & de Meuron transformed the main power station and set a precedent for the white-cube aesthetic in the display of publicly owned modern art, giving Britain a gallery with open spaces enough to rival MoMA. These once derelict spaces have now been reborn into a series of atmospheric caverns dedicated to exhibiting live, performance and interdisciplinary art. The Tate’s Tanks were – in the buildings previous life as Bankside Power Station – formerly used to store vast quantities of oil. A row of new and inclined concrete columns penetrate the space and introduce a moment of structural force of what will be built above over the next years.The Tate Modern is just a stones throw from Insight HQ, so we thought it appropriate to wander down and see their new exhibition space, the cavernous underground chambers called the Tanks. The original patina with all its stains, marks and discolouration was preserved and the new concrete blends subtly into the overall patchwork. "A meticulous mapping process of the existing concrete walls and ceilings revealed damages and conditions where careful patching was needed. "Our intervention in these found spaces is as subtle as possible," state Herzog & de Meuron. These massive industrial chambers, former underground oil holding containers, have lain unused since Bankside Power Station was decommissioned in 1981. The Tate Tanks are raw, industrial spaces which will now provide an anchor and home for the live art and film programmes previously presented in diverse spaces around Tate Modern. Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who completed the last extension to the institution, are responsible for the tanks, as well as the rest of the new addition. London's Tate Modern has recently opened the Tate Tanks, as the first part of the museum's larger extension project, which is scheduled for completion in 2016.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |