This competition entry was completed in 2008 for a floating art gallery on the Thames in London. Team members include Seth Hanley, Melissa Wallin, Nate Bisbee, Jaime Stitch, Vanessa Ottenbreit and Balyn Pitman.
Tetê à Tate is a floating icon and art distribution system. This ‘Tate on the Thames’ serves to extend Tate Modern’s reach along the river. The floating gallery comprises two components – a migrating transport vessel housing the permanent gallery,
auditorium, and auxiliary spaces, and a temporary exhibit space (TES vehicle). The floating gallery provides portage – distributing temporary exhibit spaces (TES vehicles) between the several designated docks located along the Thames. Most importantly, the vessel physically debuts the TES at banks and over bridges, engaging the City head-on and forging dialogue.
Tate Modern provides the curatorial home into which the temporary exhibit spaces are physically plugged. As new exhibits are staged, the floating gallery extends to engage and unplug the exhibits, moving them and then periodically shuffling them between important nodes along the North and South banks.
These nodes may be points of cultural interest, transportation arteries, or simply places of human activity. Depending upon the demands presented by each location, the floating gallery is able to raise, lower, rotate, and expand to place the TES. As the vessel encounters bridges it contracts to its simplest form – a minimal linear block, seated upon an unremarkable floating barge sleek enough to permit unhindered passage.
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At designated gallery drop-off points, an imprint is formed for securing the portable galleries. Each carved void memorizes an event, but also promises new possibilities with the expectation of further exhibits. At dusk connected galleries disperse green light, while vacated docks bleed red into the river, providing a visual connection to this constantly changing art network.
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The floating gallery is sheathed with hybrid electro-textiles that incorporate solar swatches and nano-wind turbines. These generate energy to assist in powering the barge, but also permit movement as the skeletal units forming the gallery structure power into their ever-changing positions. As night falls the vessel lights, and the sleek exterior of the gallery fades to reveal the bones of the craft beneath, exposing a different face to the night.