In 1999, Dame Tracey Emin’s unmade bed was nominated for Britain’s prestigious Turner art prize opening up conversations about how we define art.
The installation titled, My Bed, was Dame Tracey’s bed surrounded by empty bottles and detritus.
Dame Tracey said: “It’s like a time capsule of a woman from the '90s.”
After eventually losing out on the Turner prize, she sold her piece for $200,000. She says: “The bed itself has become a national treasure of sorts”.
Natasha Fernandes uses Dame Tracey’s 2024 interview with BBC 100 Women to tell the story of her famous artwork.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.
For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.
Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.
We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.
You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: Dame Tracey Emin and her unmade bed. Credit: Niklas Halle'n/AFP via Getty Images)
