Robert Morris's Bodyspacemotionthings at Tate Modern

Members of the public interact with American artist Robert Morris's installation Bodyspacemotionthings, recreated in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern as part of the Long Weekend Photograph: Martin Godwin/Martin Godwin

Bodyspacemotionthings invites the audience to clamber over several large sculptural elements Photograph: Martin Godwin/Martin Godwin

The work was originally shown in the Duveen Galleries of what is now Tate Britain. It was abruptly closed, because Tate staff 'were not able to cope with the frantic means of emotional release that the exhibition became. An orderly pandemonium was expected, but pandemonium broke out,' reported the Times in 1971 Photograph: Tate

Kathy Noble, a Tate curator who reinstalled the work, said: 'Apparently, at the opening, people became very overexuberant. They took it a step too far' Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

The Guardian’s reporter in 1971 noted: 'Some of the 1,500 visitors became so intoxicated by [the] opportunities that they went around "jumping and screaming" to quote the exhibitions keeper, Mr Michael Compton. They went berserk on the giant see-saws, and they loosened the boards on other exhibits by trampling on them ... "It was just a case of exceptionally exuberant or energetic participation," Mr Compton said tolerantly' Photograph: Tate

Members of the public give the installation a whirl Photograph: Martin Godwin/Martin Godwin

'The 1971 exhibition was built using raw, unfinished materials, but Bodyspacemotionthings will be made using contemporary design methods and materials,' said a spokesperson for Tate Photograph: Tate

Robert Morris, now 78, said: 'It's an opportunity for people to involve themselves with the work, become aware of their own bodies, gravity, effort, fatigue, their bodies under different conditions' Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

Boxed in: a visitor squeezes into part of the installation Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

As parts of the work were wooden, first-aid staff had to pick splinters out of people's backsides Photograph: Tate

The piece comprises huge props including beams, weights, platforms, rollers, tunnels and ramps Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Tate curator Kathy Noble says Morris was 'exploring ideas of spacial awareness, of becoming aware of yourself, your own body, as a physical object in space' Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Bodyspacemotionthings is a highlight of the Long Weekend at the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern Photograph: Martin Godwin/Martin Godwin