Tate, the UK museum network, announced Monday that Zineb Sedira will take on the next Tate Britain Commission, which is staged in that institution’s neoclassical Duveen Galleries. The commission, the artist’s largest to date, will run May 2026 to January 2027, and it will be curated by Jessica Vaughan, Tate Britain’s curator of contemporary British art.
Sedira is known for an expansive practice that encompasses photography, performance, video, and installation. Her works typically deal with her family’s history with the Algerian diaspora in France and elsewhere, often by exploring personal archives and film history.
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Born in Paris in 1963 and based in London since 1980, she represented France at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Titled “Dreams Have No Titles,” her pavilion “proposes that solidarity is a powerful thing,” ARTnews wrote in its review. The main work in the pavilion was an essay film about the line between reality and fiction.
Her pavilion has traveled the world since its debut in Italy, making stops at the 2023 Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, and Whitechapel Gallery in London. Her work is currently the subject of a solo exhibition, titled “Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go,” at the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian in Lisbon.
In a statement, Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson said, “Sedira is a vital force in contemporary art, celebrated for her immersive, multi-sensory installations that offer a nuanced reflection on history, memory, identity and belonging. We’re excited to see how she will transform the Duveen Galleries with her unique vision.”
The Tate Britain Commission is awarded once every two years to a contemporary artist to produce a new site-specific work that responds to the architecture and history of Tate Britain, which houses the national collection of British art. Past commissioned artists include Alvaro Barrington (2024), Hew Locke (2022), and Anthea Hamilton (2018).
“Taking on the Tate Britain Commission feels both monumental and intimate,” Sedira said in a statement. “It’s about bringing the weight of history into dialogue with the living pulse of the Pan-African experience. It gives me the opportunity to imagine new stories, new energies, and new meanings.”
