Tacita Dean chosen for Tate show

Dean's film Presentation Sisters follows the daily routine of five elderly residents of a convent

A British artist mainly known for her works in film has been selected to create the next work for the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.

A new work by Tacita Dean will fill the space currently occupied by the Sunflower Seeds installation by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Dean's films often capture changes in natural light or subtle shifts in movement, using a fixed camera.

The 45-year-old artist was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1998.

Dean's film subject matter includes the effect of the 1999 solar eclipse on a farm in Cornwall, and the transition from day to dusk as a lighthouse near Berwick-upon-Tweed becomes illuminated.

For 2009's Craneway Event, she filmed choreographer Merce Cunningham rehearsing his company in an abandoned car factory overlooking San Francisco bay.

And her hour-long film Presentation Sisters follows the daily routine of five elderly residents of a convent. Her works also includes found images of natural and man-made disasters, such as The Wreck Of Worthing Pier.

Dean, who is also known for her sound installations, is the third British artist to fill the Turbine Hall - following in the footsteps of Anish Kapoor in 2002 and Rachel Whiteread in 2005.

The new work will be unveiled on 11 October 2011.

'Elegiac works'

Dean was born in Canterbury in 1965 and studied at the Falmouth School of Art, the Supreme School of Fine Art in Athens and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She now lives and works in Berlin.

Sheena Wagstaff, chief curator at Tate Modern said Dean had created "some of the most fascinating and elegiac works" of recent years.

"Her interest in light, space and history, as well as her keen sense of the cinematic and the sublime, make her a perfect choice for The Unilever Series," she said.

In October, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei filled the Turbine Hall with 100 million "sunflower seeds" made of porcelain which visitors could walk over.

But the work had to be cordoned off following concerns that the seeds were creating too much ceramic dust.

Dean's will be the 12th commission for the Turbine Hall. Previous installations include Doris Salcedo's crack in the floor, Carsten Holler's spiralling slides and 2009's eerie pitch-dark steel chamber by Miroslaw Balka.