Artist Ai WeiWei to take over Turbine Hall

Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957

Artist Ai Weiwei, considered "one of China's greatest living artists", has been chosen to take over Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.

Ai, who helped create the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium in Bejing, has been selected to undertake the 11th commission in Tate's Unilever Series.

It will be open to the public from October until April next year.

The space is currently occupied by a big "black hole", entitled How It Is, by Polish artist Miroslaw Balka.

The cavernous space has previously been occupied by a giant crack, a series of spiralling slides and bunk beds.

Human rights

Ai is the first artist living and working in the Asia-Pacific region to be commissioned for the series.

He has played a key role in contemporary Chinese art over the last two decades, and has been highly vocal about human rights issues in the country.

Weiwei's previous work includes Template (2007)

His work includes Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), which shows the artist dropping an ancient ceramic vase, and Template (2007) in which he used 1,001 wooden doors and windows from destroyed Chinese buildings to create a huge sculpture.

To commemorate the 2008 Sichuan earthquake he produced Remembering 2009, a wall of Chinese text that covered the facade of the Haus der Kunst in Munich, Germany, made up of thousands of children's backpacks.

Vicente Todoli, director of London's Tate Modern said: "As Tate continues to widen its representation of art from all parts of the globe, we are delighted to be commissioning one of China's greatest living artists for the Unilever Series.

"Frequently conceived on a grand scale, Ai Weiwei's compelling installations are among the most socially engaged works of art being made today, so it will be thrilling to see how he responds to the vast, public environment of the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern this October."

The artist's creation will be unveiled to the public on 12 October.