Formed in 2010, Liberate Tate are a group of artists and environmental activists opposed to oil giant BP's lucrative sponsorship of the Tate galleries. On July 7th, 2012 over a hundred members of the group arrived at the Tate Modern with a new, uninvited installation for the gallery: a 54-foot, one-and-a-half tonne wind turbine blade.
Security guards went to extraordinary lengths to halt their progress but the activists soon installed the blade into the Tate’s Turbine Hall. Along with the blade, Liberate Tate submitted documentation designating the artwork as an official "gift to the nation", a status that means the gallery must officially process the artwork and consider it for entry to the Tate’s permanent collection.
A massive feat of technical skill and nerve, this film follows the journey of the blade, as it is recovered and transported from a Welsh valley, carried across London and pushed past security through the doors of the Tate Modern.
Liberate Tate are on Twitter @liberatetate. You can read the group’s official gift submission and the communique written to accompany the action on Liberate Tate’s website, www.liberatetate.wordpress.com/.
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