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The gallery, which is based in a converted power station next to the Thames, has transformed the building's underground oil tanks into a dedicated exhibition space for live art and installations.

The Tanks, which were officially opened on Wednesday, are part of Tate Modern's plans to attract artists from new areas of visual culture such as video, photography and performance art.

Tate Modern Director Chris Dercon said The Tanks' unusual shape could inspire artists to adapt and create new work.

He added: 'This is not a museum, this is not a gallery, this (is) not a theatre. This is something different.

'The opening of the Tanks allows us to offer a different space in our programming so that performance, sound, moving images and participation can carry as much weight as anything else we are doing.'

The Tanks mark the first stage of the £215 million Tate Modern Project, which includes plans for a new building to help increase the museum's size by 60%.

South Korean artist Sung Hwan Kim and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker are among the first artists to showcase their work in the new underground exhibition space.

Ms De Keersmaeker has adapted her 1982 performance Fase: Four Movements To The Music of Steve Reich for the opening exhibition of The Tanks, while Kim's work will be displayed in the circular East Tank which he has split into two rooms.

This includes Temper Clay, which juxtaposes video footage of his parents' apartment in a modern high rise building with that of their countryside home to highlight the issue of property.

Tate curator of contemporary art Catherine Wood added: 'We really wanted to set the older generations of artists ... in dialogue with what the youngest artists in the programme are doing.'

The exhibition runs until October 28.

Verena Vogt