Tate Modern Reveals Latest Turbine Hall Commission
Korean artist Mire Lee’s large-scale kinetic sculptural installation Open Wound (2024) was unveiled at London’s Tate Modern on October 8, marking her first major presentation in the United Kingdom. Composed of skin-like fabric sculptures suspended from the ceiling of the massive Turbine Hall by metal chains, the work is the annual 2024 Hyundai Commission. Lee recommissioned one of the building’s original cranes to hang a seven-meter-long, motorized turbine, referencing the oil-fired devices that used to fill the former power station-turned-museum. As the turbine spins, it pumps a dark liquid through silicone tubes and onto a drip tray holding construction mesh and bent steel rebar sculptures; these continuously absorb the blood-like liquid and transform into the “skins” hanging from the ceiling. Mechanical yet visceral, Open Wound prompts reflections on history, industrialism, and the human body.
—The Editors
