The Unilever Series at Tate Modern - a five year £1.25m sponsorship with creativity at its heart

Anish Kapoor’s stunning installation ‘Marsyas’ prompted Unilever Chairman Niall FitzGerald to comment: “Anish Kapoor’s sculptures invoke the sublime and provoke an intense spiritual and physical response.  If the purpose of art is to push back boundaries, to stretch minds and to challenge audiences, then ‘Marsyas’ leaves the viewer gasping for superlatives.

“The Unilever Series is a sponsorship that reflects how Unilever works as a business and how serious we are about creativity, about enhancing the quality of life through that creativity and about giving people the space to achieve the outstanding.”

This year Unilever is matching its annual sponsorship investment of £250,000 with a similar spend on advertising and marketing to promote The Unilever Series. It is also taking a more targeted approach to reach its key audiences, which include opinion-formers, the City and employees.

For the first time Unilever will be using direct mail to keep these groups informed. Additionally it is taking such innovative steps as an information CD Rom on ‘The House’ magazine and a false cover on ‘Parliamentary Monitor’ as well as poster advertising at key mainline stations and ‘share square’ notices in the national press. All marketing activities will carry the theme: ‘The Unilever Series at Tate Modern. The product of creativity.’

Creativity is at the heart of Unilever’s approach, whether it is developing innovative products to meet the everyday needs of people everywhere, supporting community projects that address environmental, educational or economic needs, or sponsoring inspirational new art.

Delivering creative benefits for Unilever’s employees and community partners is an important objective for the Unilever Series sponsorship. Family days at Tate Modern and talks by Tate curators at Unilever locations are included in the programme for employees, while children and teachers from Unilever’s link schools in Tower Hamlets are able to participate in events and educational activities at Tate Modern.

Creativity is also at the heart of The Unilever International Schools Art Project, being run by Unilever for the second year in association with Tate Modern. The project encourages children to create contemporary works of art on a stimulating theme. In 2001, 15,000 entries were received from 13 countries on the theme of ‘Environment’. This year, the theme is ‘Future Worlds’ and the entries promise to provide a fascinating insight into young people’s vision for the future of our world.

For more information access www.unileverseries.com or contact:
Patrick Kerr on 020 7822 6686  or
Sue Meeson on 020 7822 6304
Photographs are available at www.newscast.co.uk

Note to Editors:
For the first time in The Unilever Series, an artist will use the entire length of Tate Modern’s massive Turbine Hall, which measures 155m (550ft) long, 23 m (75ft) wide and 35m (115 ft) high. Marsyas, comprises three steel rings joined by a single span of PVC membrane. Two are positioned vertically, at each end of the space, while a third is suspended parallel with the Turbine Hall bridge. Seemingly wedged into place, the geometry generated by these three rigid steel structures determines the sculpture’s overall form, a shift from vertical to horizontal and back to vertical again.

Kapoor began the project in January 2002.  He has worked closely with Cecil Balmond of Arup to create the work. Unilever’s support, totalling £1.25 million over five year, allows Tate Modern to commission a new large-scale work for the Turbine Hall each year until 2004.