Starting in 2015, the Tate Modern's iconic Turbine Hall will enjoy the benefits of a new corporate sponsorship agreement—the largest and longest to date—with Hyundai, South Korea's most important auto manufacturer. Turbine Hall has been the cradle of significant works of art, in terms of their conceptual progress, important transformations, and the breaking of schemas in the historical line of contemporary world art.
The company will sponsor the commission program for the space for a period of 11 years, announced Sir Nicholas Serota, Tate director. Serota highlighted the agreement as a new chapter in the institution's history, and a broad platform for the birth of many things.
The space's annual contemporary art program has been sponsored by Unilever since 2000, including important shows by renowned artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Olafur Eliasson, and Doris Salcedo.
Hyundai will also finance the acquisition of nine works by South Korea's Nam June Paik, the celebrated artist who died in 2006.
The new agreement, at an estimated cost of 5 million pounds sterling, coincides with the opening of an expansion to the Tate Modern, to be completed in early 2016.