Sealed with a - string?

It is one of the world's most iconic sculptures, two lovers locked in a passionate embrace - but now there are strings attached. Auguste Rodin's masterpiece The Kiss has been one of the Tate's most popular exhibits for more than 50 years. From tomorrow, however, visitors will get a new view of the famous smooching couple. London artist Cornelia Parker has entwined Rodin's lovers in a mile-long piece of string.

It is, of course, all in the name of modern art. Parker and 22 other artists have come up with exciting work for Days Like These, a new Tate exhibition that shows the best contemporary painting, sculpture, and installation art in Britain. Highlights include a film lamenting the closure of London's public lavatories and a room dedicated to the Lockerbie trial, including an exact replica of the witness box.

But it is Parker's strung-out Rodin that really catches the eye.

Exhibition curator Judith Nesbitt said: "Cornelia is interested in the emotionality of the work. These are two lovers wrapped up in each other. There is something very suggestive in the string, in the way it binds the lovers' heads and conceals their kiss. It is suggestive of some of the constrictions of relationships, the caught-upness and complications."

Before 46-year-old Parker was let loose on the Rodin, the Tate had to make sure her plans to almost mummify the marble lovers would leave no damage. "Cornelia has worked with conservators from the moment she proposed the piece," emphasised Ms Nesbitt. "It is absolutely safe to have done this."

The Kiss was created by Rodin and his assistants between 1901 and 1904 for Lewes-based antiquarian Edward Perry Warren.

When Warren gave the suggestive sculpture to the people of Lewes in 1913, it was displayed in the town hall - but sparked such outrage it had to be fenced off and covered up with sheeting.

"It has a history of being concealed and revealed," said Ms Nesbitt. Now Parker has concealed those famous lovers once more - but for the opposite reasons. "It is a highly erotic piece of work," she added.

Parker used a mile of string - all of which was wrapped by hand without any adhesive or tape - as a nod to the great French modern artist Marcel Duchamp who once used the same in one of his works.

Other stand-out works in Days Like These include monumental new mouldings by Rachel Whiteread, as well as work from less well-known names.

Painter Gillian Carnegie's works include a canvas which at first looks like a black square. Approach it, though, and a detailed forest scene emerges, created by applying different thicknesses of paint with only slight colour variations.

Oliver Payne, 24, and Nick Relph, 22, continue their mission to brand themselves the enfants terribles of British contemporary art with a video installation dedicated to the public loos. Called Gentlemen, the film is "a lament and tribute to London's fast-disappearing public lavatories".

As for Rodin's lovers, they will be freed from their ties at the end of the three-month exhibition and returned to Tate Modern.