In May 2026, Zineb Sedira takes her explorations of identity and migration to the Duveen Galleries. The show will be part of the Tate Britain Commission.
Encouraging responses to the building’s neo-classical architecture, the Tate Britain Commission allows the space to remain alive, providing artists with the opportunity to reinvent the experience of walking through the gallery. Artists who have previously been commissioned for the Duveen Galleries include Christina Mackie in 2015, with her dye-dipped nets and raw glass sculptures, and, most recently, Alvaro Barrington’s 2024 painterly homage to the women who raised him.
Zineb Sedira’s artistic background consists mostly of photography and video installations; the last artwork by Sedira to be displayed in a Tate gallery was her film Dreams Have No Titles in 2022. The film epitomises Sedira’s interest in archival memory and challenging critical histories, particularly of migration.
Born in Paris to Algerian parents, Sedira moved to London to study at Central Saint Martin’s and Slade Schools of Art. Much of her work explores the changes in identity, both internally and externally, that come with migration to a new environment. Descending from North African Muslims, her work frequently uses the image of the veil as a concept denoting a barrier of representation, the treatment of Otherness in Europe. Displayed at Tate in 2002, her three-channel video Mother Tongue reinforces cultural separations through language and the edges of the televisual frame, encapsulating ‘the difficulty of maintaining a shared heritage across national and linguistic divides and acknowledging the complexity of identity.’
In today’s prevailing politics of migration, social media replaces television. Commissioned in this turbulent era, it is likely that Sedira’s work will explore some of these questions as they relate to social media, image-building and the contemporary political landscape.
Taking on this commission for the Duveen Galleries, “feels both monumental and intimate,” Sedira told Tate. “It’s about bringing the weight of history into dialogue with the living pulse of the Pan-African experience. It gives me the opportunity to imagine new stories, new energies, and new meanings.” The impression we get of her approach to this commission is one of acknowledgement; acknowledgement that the current political outlook for migration in the UK, although outlandish, is real, but also an acknowledgement that she has taken this subject head on before.
Alex Farquharson, Director of Tate Britain, said that “Sedira is a vital force in contemporary art, celebrated for her immersive, multi-sensory installations that offer a nuanced reflection on history, memory, identity and belonging. We’re excited to see how she will transform the Duveen Galleries with her unique vision.”
Tate Britain Commission: Zineb Sedira will be on show at Tate Britain, London, from 13th May 2026 to 17th January 2027. For more information, visit their website.
Image: Alexandra de Saint Blanquat © Zineb Sedira
