Two of the Tanks are used to show live performance art and installations while the third provides utility space. Tate describes them as “the world’s first museum galleries permanently dedicated to live art.”Īn austere sweeping concrete staircase complements the roughly finished tank walls. The three large, circular, underground oil tanks originally used by the power station have been converted into accessible display spaces and facilities areas. The Turbine Hall resonated to Bruce Nauman’s ‘Raw Materials’ audio installation. The extension offers 22,492 square metres of additional gross internal area for display and exhibition spaces, performance spaces, education facilities, offices, catering and retail facilities as well as a car parking and a new external public space. It’s been a while since I’d been along to the Tate Modern, and a lot has changed since my last visit, with the new Switch House extension being built and the conversion of three circular underground tanks into new galleries.īuilt above the oil tanks is the new Switch House extension, a ten-storey, 65-metre high tower, which opened to the public on 17 June 2016.

Tate modern tanks section