LONDON.- Tate today announces the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational's programme for the year ahead. Launched in 2019, the Centre enables Tate to grow and develop art historical knowledge with individuals and organisations around the world, presenting a programme encompassing the Annual Symposium, seminars, performances and workshops. Its research will continue to inform activities across Tate’s four galleries and beyond, from a major exhibition of ink painting to an event exploring street art. The programme is made possible by the long-term partnership between Tate and Hyundai Motor, now extended until 2036, reflecting a shared commitment to artistic innovation and public access to contemporary art.
The Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational Annual Symposium begins tomorrow. Entitled Transnational Resistances, this two-day event is in collaboration with IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. It brings together artists, academics and activists, including Bernadette Devlin, Zeina Maasri, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme, and Dr Isobel Harbison, amongst others, to consider how resistance is practiced and embodied through art. The accompanying satellite programme includes outdoor screenings at IMMA and an online reading group examining how artists work in relation to resistance movements. Looking ahead to 2027, the next Annual Symposium will explore the theme of art and spirituality across two-days of talks, performances, workshops and screenings.
Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational directly supports research for Tate’s exhibitions and displays, bringing new art histories to a wider public. This currently includes support of Tate Modern’s acclaimed Ana Mendieta exhibition, open until 17 January 2027, and the free collection display Teach by Example, dedicated to artistic networks and education spaces that flourished across Africa in the late 20th century. Next year, the Centre's research will underpin Tate’s first exhibition dedicated to one of the world's oldest artistic traditions – ink painting – through the work of seven modern artists from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Ink at Tate Modern will coincide with a new free collection display, A Year in Art: Lebanon 1990, uniting artists who explore how conflict and displacement have shaped image-making, collective memories and everyday life.
Several talks, workshops and performances across Tate’s galleries will also build on the Centre's research. At Tate Modern, Theatre of the Street on 5 December 2026 will explore street and public art and Ink as Method on 24 April will investigate philosophies of ink painting. The online event Lessons in Spiral Time on 25 November 2026 will explore how African and African diasporic traditions carry knowledge, memory and history through performance, sound and storytelling. To mark the end of Zineb Sedira’s Tate Britain Commission on 16 January 2027, the Centre will present Café Alger, a lecture-performance by Algerian archivist Nabil Djedouani, followed by a set by Algerian-Tunisian DJ, Cheb Mimo. On 3 July 2027, Tate St Ives will stage Photosynthesis, a transnational, multi-site residency programme supporting artistic research into ecological concerns, including a performance by artists Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser. At Amos Rex in Helsinki, Breathing Through Technology in autumn 2027 will examine how technology can embody ideas of nature, humanity and progress.
An integral part of the Centre is an ongoing series of adjunct curatorial posts in the fields of indigeneity, ecology, and Africa and the Caribbean diaspora, enabling curators and researchers to share on-the-ground research from around the world. In 2027, a new role in the field of art and spirituality will be established. These positions will work across events, exhibitions, acquisitions and displays, furthering the Centre’s illumination of diverse global perspectives and artistic practices.
