Tate Live: Up Hill Down Hall: An indoor carnival, Tate Modern

For the biggest summer 2014 event in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, artists gather from across the globe to explore and celebrate the theme of Carnival 

The Idea

If you’re not into the crowds and sound systems associated with the Notting Hill Carnival, head instead to Up Hill Down Hall: An indoor carnival at the Tate Modern, inspired by the Notting Hill event but with an eye for critical engagement and an artistic perspective on the themes of the carnival. 

Up Hill Down Hall is a festival of performance that celebrates 50 years of the Carnival’s existence. Based on Oscar Niemeyer’s carnival stadium in Rio, the Sambadrome, the architect Gia Wolff will transform the space in the Turbine Hall into a deconstructed canopy under which the performances will take place.  

Here are three players in the carnival who we are particularly looking forward to seeing:

Hew Locke

London based Guayanan artist Hew Locke is best known for his sculptural and installation work such as the plastic beaded reliefs portraying the queen, and boat installations that reference Britain’s colonial past. He will be creating his first performance piece for this event. Often inhabiting the periphery of the London art scene, Locke’s work is a breath of fresh air. His sculptures, full of colour, are in stark contrast to the formalism often found in the UK art world. Give and Take, his commission for the Tate, explores amongst other things the politics of the Noting Hill area – the gentrification and tensions that can be extrapolated to most London neighbourhoods. 

Marlon Griffith

Trinidad-born artist Marlon Griffith has previously created carnival interventions that use the body as a primary medium. At Tate Modern he will present No Black in the Union Jack. In past works he has created narratives that question our socio-cultural environment and make tangible the power relations in public spaces, and this new performance piece draws from the 2011 London riots.  

Dubmorphology

In keeping with the carnival theme, Dubmorphology, a duo of artists who produce and create sound and visual installations, will remix rhythms of calypso and reggae with spoken-word elements of the carnival. For this site-specific commission they have incorporated historical as well as contemporary content to be played through a purpose-built sound system on the Turbine Hall.