一座类似于海运集装箱的巨大铁屋今天在泰特现代美术馆揭幕。参观者们走上一个斜坡，进入到一个黑暗的空间。那些惧怕黑暗的人肯定会避而远之。

这座称作《如此情况》的雕塑，由米罗斯拉夫·巴尔卡创作，是泰特现代美术馆联合利华合作项目的第十件作品。这一项目的第一件作品是路易斯·布尔乔亚2000年的巨大蜘蛛，那以后的作品包括巨大的太阳、上千的箱子以及地板上的巨大裂缝。

对于这件由出生在华沙的艺术家创作的雕塑作品，美术馆认为参观者很可能会感到精神紧张、惶惶不安。这间黑屋体积巨大——有30米长，10米宽，13米高——走进里面，参观者便步入了完全的黑暗之中。希望他们不会和其他艺术爱好者相撞。

泰特说已经将健康和安全因素考虑在内，铁屋里经常会有持手电的员工巡视。

巴尔卡给作品赋予了很多寓意——圣经故事中的黑暗之灾，太空中的黑洞，地狱的形象——但馆长海伦·圣茨伯里认为人们对这件作品的反应会不尽相同。

“我们每一个人欣赏这件作品的体会都会有很大差别。”她说道，“有些人可能会感到很沮丧，绝大多数人会惊慌失措。而另一些人则会觉得和一群陌生人同在一个空间里，并且感知彼此的存在，会很舒服。”

这件作品巴尔卡从创意到安装用时一年。当被问到走进这个完工的集装箱的第一反应是什么时，他答道：“哇，感觉好极了。”

作品的题目《如此情况》，取自于塞缪尔·贝克特的同名小说，巴尔卡说这件作品的主题应该是关于一切和虚空的。“我没有任何直接的灵感，而艺术家的话也并不重要。重要的是作品本身。看它是好是坏，是不是成功。”

巴尔卡说他用这间铁屋来作为冥想的地方，他希望其他人也如此。人们在2003年会常去欣赏奥拉维伦·埃利亚松的《天气计划》。他们会躺在地板上仰望太阳。

泰特的总监文森特·托多利说，这件作品和最近的艺术项目都采用黑暗及忧郁的主题，这是纯粹的巧合。在巴尔卡之前展出的是米尼克·冈萨雷斯·弗尔斯特的避雨处以及桃瑞斯·沙尔塞朵长达167米的地板裂缝。“我们在选择艺术家时，并不在意他们所要传达的信息。我们看重他们以往的作品以及将要呈现出的作品。”

这件作品由利托汉普顿·韦尔丁金属结构工程公司搭建，内墙使用了一种比普通油漆黑十倍的植绒软墙纸。本展览从10月13日起至明年4月5日供游人免费参观。

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An enormous steel chamber, not unlike a sea container, was today unveiled at Tate Modern, with visitors invited to walk up a ramp and enter a black void. Those who fear the dark may want to stay away.

The sculpture, called How It Is, is by Miroslaw Balka and is the tenth work in Tate Modern's annual series of Unilever commissions, which began with Louise Bourgeois' giant spider in 2000 and has since included an enormous sun, thousands of boxes and a giant crack in the floor.

The Warsaw-born artist has created a piece that the gallery fully expects will unnerve and unsettle visitors. The structure is enormous – 30 metres long, 10m wide and 13m high – and once inside it, visitors will walk into complete blackness hoping – presumably – that they don't then bump or knock into fellow art-lovers.

Tate Modern said health and safety had been on its mind and the space will be regularly patrolled by attendants with torches.

Balka is alluding to many things in the work – the biblical Plague of Darkness, black holes in space, images of hell – but curator Helen Sainsbury said reactions to the work would differ.

"Each one of us will approach this work and experience it very differently," she said. "For some it may be an incredibly sombre experience, for most it will be unnerving. For others there will be something quite comforting about going into a space like this full of strangers, yet being aware of each other."

Balka has been working on the piece, from concept to installation, for a year. Asked what his first reaction on walking into the completed container was, he said: "Whoa. It works."

The title, How It Is, is taken from Samuel Beckett's novel of the same name and Balka said the piece should be seen as being about everything and nothing. "There is no one single direct inspiration for the piece and the words of the artist are not so important. The work is important. It is good or bad. It works or it does not work."

Balka said he was using it as a space for contemplation and hoped others would do the same, just as people repeatedly visited Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project in 2003, often lying on their backs and gazing up to the sun.

Tate Modern's director, Vicente Todolí, said it was a coincidence that this and recent commissions had been rather dark or sombre – before Balka there was Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's shelter from permanent rain and Doris Salcedo's 167-metre-long crack in the floor. "When we select the artists we don't select them because of the possible message. We select them because of their past work and how they might deal with the space."

The work has been built by a structural metalwork company, Littlehampton Welding, and the interior walls are lined with a soft flock that is 10 times blacker than normal black paint. It can be seen free of charge from tomorrow until 5 April.

 

该内容来源于英国总领事馆文化教育处