Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall commission, Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold, opened at Tate Modern on 13 October 2026 and runs until 11 April 2027. Entry is free. The Paris-based Lebanese sound artist and composer has filled the former power station's turbine hall with suspended horns, drums, gongs, bamboo mouth organs and 20-metre textiles that pick up the hall's air and turn it into a constantly changing piece of music. Here is what you will see and hear, opening hours, the live performance dates and what the first reviews said.

What is Hold? Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall installation explained

Tate describes Hold as an immersive sonic landscape of custom-built wind instruments, percussion, electronics and sculptural objects, "woven together to make an orchestra which connects the earth and sky". It is the 11th annual Hyundai Commission.

Key elements, according to Tate's press release:

A metal karnai, a ceremonial brass trumpet from Uzbekistan, hangs above the Turbine Hall ramp beside two 3D-printed horns that echo its long shape. The horns were made with architecture firm Arthur Mamou-Mani from a composite of sugar resin and bamboo dust.

At the far end, drum skins, gongs, horns and 20m-long textiles hang among bamboo and shengs (mouth organs from China and Southeast Asia), with air pushed through them by a computer-controlled motor.

Satoshi Kondo, designer of ISSEY MIYAKE's women's line, provided signature textiles for the installation. Atoui coated the hanging textiles with conductive paint that feeds a synthesiser, so they produce shifting bass tones as they move with air currents and humidity.

Embedded microphones sample the instruments and the crowd noise in the hall, and Atoui's custom software plays them back as new layers.

On the floor, lithophone-like stones and warm lights invite visitors to sit, lie down and look up.

Opening times and how to visit

Hold is in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG. It is open daily 10:00–18:00, and until 21:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is free and there is no booking. All Tate Modern entrances are step-free, including the Turbine Hall entrance on Holland Street. Free audio-described tours for blind and partially sighted visitors are scheduled for 18 November, 16 December, 20 January, 17 February and 17 March (11:00–12:00).

Live performance dates in the Turbine Hall

Atoui treats the installation as a sound system that musicians can plug into. Free sessions run 19:00–20:30 on:

16 and 17 October — Tarek Atoui, Emptyset, Mazen Kerbaj, Kenichi Iwasa and Aya Metwalli (opening weekend)

13 November — Bendik Giske, Valentina Magaletti

27 November — Nkisi, Mhmad Safa, also part of a free Tate Modern Late (18:00–22:00)

11 December — with the London Contemporary Music Festival

15 January, 19 February, 19 March and 2 April — more line-ups to be announced

What the critics said

Reviews have been warm. In the Guardian, Jonathan Jones gave his review the headline "hallelujah, it's raining musical instruments!" and called the work rich, ingenious, funny, sad and mystical, ending by describing Atoui as "a modern magus". Artnet's headline welcomed it as a commission that "Is No Spectacle. Thank Goodness" — a quieter, slower piece than the hall's showier past works. Expect to spend time with it: the sound changes as you walk, sit and listen.

Who is Tarek Atoui?

Tarek Atoui was born in Beirut in 1980 and is based in Paris. He studied sound art and electro-acoustic music at the French National Conservatory of Reims. His installations and performances have been shown at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), dOCUMENTA 13 (2012), the Serpentine, HangarBicocca in Milan, TBA21 in Madrid and Tate Modern itself in 2016. He won the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize in 2022. The commission is curated by Nabila Abdel Nabi and Dina Akhmadeeva.

People also ask: is the Turbine Hall exhibition free?

Yes. Hold and all the live sessions listed above are free. Tate says the Hyundai Commission series has drawn more than 21.6 million visitors since it began, and the Tate–Hyundai Motor partnership now runs until 2036.

More London art this season

Pair a visit with Tate Modern's other autumn show (https://www.thesundayprofile.com/tate-modern-light-and-magic-2026) and our guide to Frieze London week (https://www.thesundayprofile.com/frieze-london-2026).

Sources

Tate press release, Hyundai Commission: Tarek Atoui: Hold (12 Oct 2026) — installation details, collaborators, dates, hours, performance programme, artist biography. Tate Modern exhibition page and exhibition guide (glossary of instruments). The Guardian, Jonathan Jones, "Tarek Atoui's Turbine Hall review – hallelujah, it's raining musical instruments!" (12 Oct 2026). Artnet News review headline (Oct 2026).