Tate Modern's first performance art show to feature fake fog

Fujiko Nakaya staged a fog artwork in Bristol last year

An artwork that will see visitors shrouded in artificial fog is to be part of a performance art exhibition at the Tate Modern.

Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya's immersive "sculptures", made from water vapour, will be staged outside the gallery's new Switch House.

Performances by her long-term collaborators, such as dancers and drummers, will take place in the fog.

The first BMW Tate Live exhibition, to be an annual event, opens in spring.

Live installations will be created in and above the Tate Modern's underground Tanks space, which the gallery said will "provide visitors with a distinctive location in which to engage with new art in a new way".

'Primary experience'

Nakaya, 83, has been working on a system of dispersing water vapour to create mist since the 1970s. Her father has been credited with making the first artificial snowflakes.

She said: "Walking inside fog, people are suddenly confronted with white darkness, but soon they find themselves trying to use all the senses other than the visual to orient themselves.

"People love the feel of fog on their skin, immersed, wet and cold, but gentle and soothing. It's a primary experience."

Her previous installations include those at Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and the Grand Palais in Paris.

The fog artwork will be seen at Switch House, to the right of the main building in this image

Other works being staged as part of Ten Days Six Nights include a plant-filled room in which artist Isabel Lewis will be "combining music, food, drink and scent to create an alternative environment for dance, discussions and invited musicians", said the Tate.

Its director of exhibitions Achim Borchardt-Hume said: "Our culture is always changing, and so exhibitions must change too.

"In our connected digital age, artists and audiences are ever more fascinated by live experiences, shared in the moment with those around them."

The exhibition runs from 24 March to 2 April.