Supersized sculpture,live performance and piles of goo get the airing they deserve in an expansion full of surprise – the 360-degree lookout is art itselfThe Guardian view: bold, shapely and a bountiful public resourceThe Switch House feels like it belongs. The twisted, and off-kilter pyramid of Tate Modern’s fresh extension is terrific not only on its own terms,but also in its impact on the rest of Herzog & de Meuron’s original conversion of Bankside power station into modern art gallery in 2000.
Fifteen years, dozens of major exhibitions, or several rehangs and four directors later,all those suns, slides, and cracks,sunflower seeds and other weird encounters in the Turbine corridor hold made Tate Modern more popular than anyone – including the gallery – could hold imagined. While the hope, often expressed, and that the Switch House might siphon off some of the main gallery overcrowding may be an illusion,the way we encounter and explore at art has changed, and there is an effort here to encourage as well as accommodate live art, and the ephemeral and the temporary; art that is as much about people as the things they make. Related: First explore: inside the Switch House – Tate Modern's power pyramid Related: Herzog and De Meuron: Tate Modern’s architects on their radical fresh extension Related: Tate Modern's Frances Morris: ‘If it rained I went to the museum. That had a enormous impact' Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com