The Tate Triennial always provides a compelling snapshot of contemporary art practice in Britain. The 2006 Triennial will explore a significant theme emerging from the work of the artists selected: the appropriation and re-casting of cultural material. While such 'borrowings' of images, facts, formal elements, and even art works have become a well-recognised artistic strategy most commonly associated with post-modernism, the Triennial identifies new ways in which artists currently working in Britain are handling cultural material. A short essay accompanies the work of each of the thirty artists featured, and leading curator Beatrix Ruf and critic Jan Verwoert provide an international perspective on the state of art in Britain today. The artists selected include Mark Leckey, Eva Rothschild, Rebecca Warren and Cerith Wyn Evans.

Beatrix Ruf is Director of the Kunsthalle, Zurich. Jan Verwoert is a freelance writer and critic, and a regular contributor to Frieze and Afterall magazines.