Tate Modern in London was evacuated and closed for 40 minutes on Sunday after a child fell from the viewing platform at the river-side of the building, landing on the rood of the fifth floor. Witnesses claim he was ‘thrown’. A tweet from the Metropolitan Police noted that ‘A teenager has been arrested in connection with the incident.’ On Monday the six-year-old boy was in a critical but stable condition, and was ‘no longer in a life-threatening situation’. A BBC correspondent who was visiting the gallery at the time counted at least two fire engines, 10 police cars and an incident control unit, as well as the air ambulance in attendance. On Tuesday further details emerged after a 17-year-old boy appeared at a preliminary hearing at Bromley Youth Court in south London. The victim was a French national and suffered a fractured spine, ‘deep’ bleed to the brain and leg and arm fractures. The teenage suspect, who cannot be named because of his age, is not believed to have known the boy. He was charged with attempted murder, before appearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday. The suspect did not enter a plea and his defence counsel said a psychiatric report should be made before he does so. A trial date was slated for February 2020 until which the suspect will be held in custody.
On Monday Art Dubai announced the guest curators for the 2020 edition of the art fair. Nancy Adajania from Mumbai; Kabelo Malatsie from Johannesburg; Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath who are Munich- and New York-based; Munira Al Sayegh of Abu Dhabi; Marina Fokidis from Athens and Paris-based Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez will steer various sections of the fair in March, from solo modern art presentations, to a residency and performance programme.
The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) sent out a notice on Tuesday that Yung Ma will take up the role of artistic director for Seoul Mediacity Biennale 2020. Ma is currently curator of the Contemporary Art and Prospective Creation Department at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and has previously worked at Hong Kong’s M+ as associate curator of moving image, and co-curated the Hong Kong Pavilion at Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2013.
On Wednesday the Istanbul Biennial admitted that the building works at one of the three venues for the exhibition, which opens 14 September, is overrunning and the necessary disposal of asbestos materials present in some of the historic buildings will not be completed in time. A new venue will be found for Nicolas Bourriaud’s show alongside the Pera Museum and Büyükada Island.
