Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliassonis a Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research. Olafur represented Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and later that year installed The Weather Project in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London...
NationalityDanish
ProfessionArtist
CountryDenmark
eye mind skins
I was interested in how we engage the world. How do we use our skin as our eyes? If you read a cityscape or a landscape with just your mind, and not your body, it becomes like a picture or representation, not something you really engage with.
taken mean reality
I want to expose and evaluate the fact that the seeing and sensing process is a system that should not be taken for granted as natural - it's a cultivated means of reality production that, as a system, can be negotiated and changed.
aesthetic
Light has an evident, functional and aesthetic impact on our lives.
art team thinking
I do not think making art alone makes it any better than making it with a team of people.
moving thinking museums
Your rainbow panorama enters into a dialogue with the existing architecture and reinforces what is assured beforehand, that is to say the view of the city. I have created a space which virtually erases the boundaries between inside and outside – where people become a little uncertain as to whether they have stepped into a work or into a part of the museum. This uncertainty is important to me, as it encourages people to think and sense beyond the limits within which they are accustomed to moving.
thinking artist valuable
Artists are valuable to public discussion: They show the correlation between doing and thinking.
people today electricity
There are 1.3 billion people today who have no access to electricity. Many of them rely on kerosene lanterns for light, but kerosene is both expensive and hazardous to the health.
eye simple sight
For the sake of sanity, the brain and the eyes keep things simple. But take away the sense of sight and suddenly things are not so simple.
moving iceland views
Ive walked a lot in the mountains in Iceland. And as you come to a new valley, as you come to a new landscape, you have a certain view. If you stand still, the landscape doesnt necessarily tell you how big it is. It doesnt really tell you what youre looking at. The moment you start to move the mountain starts to move.
individual
The viewer brings something individual to the experience of any artwork.
reality trying
I always try to make work that activates the viewer to be a co-producer of our shared reality.
art eye determine
Over the years, in making art, I have constantly explored issues dealing with space, time, light, and society. I am particularly interested in how the light of a space determines how we see that space and similarly, in how light and color are actually phenomena within us, within our own eyes.
motivation inspiration responsibility
Having an experience is taking part in the world. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility.
color light goal
My goal is to formulate a new color theory based on the full spectrum of visible light.