London SE1 community website

Tate Modern reopens Robert Morris’s controversial installation

London SE1 website team

Tate Modern's Turbine Hall has been taken over by a reconstruction of Robert Morris's 1971 Tate installation.

Morris wheel
Robert Morris wheel
Morris's first wheeel
Robert Morris's original 1971 wheel
Morris see-saw
Robert Morris see-saw

First created for his show at the original Tate Gallery on Millbank, it was closed down after just five days by Tate director Norman Reid who announced that there had been "exuberant and over excited behaviour" by some visitors.

Its reconstruction after almost forty years for the The Long Weekend at Tate Modern will allow another opportunity for members of the public to navigate the space by climbing, see-sawing and sliding around the huge interactive sculptures and objects including beams, tunnels, ramps and rollers.

UBS Openings: The Long Weekend, now in its fourth year, is transforming Tate Modern over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend with a programme of live events and interactive activities.

This year's festival is inspired by the opening of a new wing of displays, Energy and Process, which explores Arte Povera, Post Minimalism and their legacy of merging art and life together by using humble, everyday materials and viewer participation.

On Saturday afternoon one of the key figures of Arte Povera, Michelangelo Pistoletto, will be creating a large sphere out of newspapers from around the world to be paraded through the streets of the City and Southwark. Echoing a similar piece created in Turin between 1966-8, the artist will encourage the public to join the globe of newsprint in a procession across the Millennium Bridge and along the Thames path to Embankment Pier, completing its journey back to Bankside by boat.

A new performance work 1000 by Paola Pivi has been created especially for The Long Weekend when a thousand people will scream in unison. The performance will happen on the mezzanine bridge on Monday at 5pm.

On the riverside lawns in front of Tate Modern there are games, workshops, puppetry and storytelling for children of all ages and their families. The art-inspired activities will climax in a Maypole made of recycled materials.

The SE1 website is supported by people like you
We are part of
Independent Community News Network
Email newsletter

For the latest local news and events direct to your inbox every Monday, you need our weekly email newsletter SE1 Direct.

Archive
News archive from February 1999 to January 2001
Got a story for us?
Contact us with your tip-offs and story ideas.