LONDON.- Tate Modern today unveils an original installation by French artist Christelle Oyiri, the recipient of the Infinities Commission 2025 - a new annual commission showcasing the limitless experimentation of contemporary art. Titled In a perpetual remix where is my own song? this new installation made specially for the Tanks, Tate Moderns unique spaces dedicated to performance, installation and film, traces the effects of digital culture on how we construct identity. Influenced by her personal experiences of the entertainment industry, the artist uses tools from her music practice to reflect on contemporary beauty standards and how they are stimulated by our online lives. Inspired by cut-up and fragmentation techniques used in DJ-ing and experimental writing, Oyiris new work draws similarities between these methods and those used in cosmetic surgery and digital image-making technologies.
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The first of its kind, this large-scale, site-specific installation sees bronze sculptures of a womans body in different states of transformation mounted on top of speakers, acting as plinths. As spotlights move from one figure to another, an accompanying soundscape warps, distorts, harmonises and repeats to create a distinct sound for each sculpture. Projected onto the walls of the Tanks, a video splices together filmed footage with found imagery, featuring scenes from cosmetic surgery, memes, and strip clubs to create a looping performance of sound, light and sculpture. Oyiri asks the viewer: In a hyperconnected society, where the image is perpetually staged and corrected, how do the virtual and the material come together in the quest for the ideal body? How do aesthetic practices influence our perception of reality and desire?.
Karin Hindsbo, Director of Tate Modern said, In Tate Moderns 25th year, it is entirely fitting for us to launch this free commission designed to stretch the limits of what visual art can offer. Christelle Oyiri is the perfect artist to take on the challenge, with her work regularly disrupting the boundaries between creative disciplines, tuning our attention to the world around us with fresh vision.
Born in Paris in 1992, Christelle Oyiri is an artist, DJ and producer working across multiple disciplines from music and film to performance and installation often exploring under-the-surface stories about contemporary culture, media and identity. Oyiri has described her work as focusing on lost mythologies, youth subcultures, and diasporic histories. She has staged installations, performances and events around the world, including at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Haus der Kunst in Munich, Tramway in Glasgow and the Serpentine Gallery in London, as well as working as a DJ under the pseudonym CRYSTALMESS.
Christelle Oyiri: In a perpetual remix where is my own song? marks the first iteration of Tate Moderns new annual commission supporting experimental and visionary work. It will continue to provide a platform for international artists at the cutting-edge of contemporary practice, enabling them to realise innovative and future-facing projects at a critical point in their careers. As its name reflects, the Infinities Commission explores the boundless curiosity of contemporary artists, the multiplicity of tools and technologies they use, and the limitless diversity of their approaches. In addition to Oyiris installation, three artists have also been awarded funds towards the research and development of their art practices: Rashida Bumbray, Xenobia Bailey and Jean Katambayi Mukendi.