The work of the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is difficult to attribute to any art direction. He uses the achievements of science and the surrounding space as tools for creating his works. His installations change our perception of reality and give an incomparable aesthetic experience. This may be what the art of the future will look like.
Life and creativity
Olafur Eliasson was born in 1967 in Copenhagen. When the boy was three years old, his parents divorced, and he stayed with his mother in Denmark. In the mid-90s, Eliasson graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and moved to Berlin. He founded his studio Studio Olafur Eliasson, where he works today. Like Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst, he has assembled a team of creative professionals who help him to realize ambitious projects. The master's work almost immediately received the attention of critics and viewers. Since the second half of the 90s, he held dozens of exhibitions and installations worldwide.
It may seem that Eliasson spends most of his time in the studio, but he regularly travels around the world to study the properties of the environment. The artist closely examines the movement of air masses, melting glaciers, water evaporation, and light refraction in different environments.
«Olafur Eliasson's work». Photos © palazzostrozzi.org
In addition to natural phenomena, Eliasson pays attention to the achievements of technological progress in his work. His most exciting works appear at the intersection of science and art. The master does not stop there, constantly delighting the audience with new immersive installations. The scale of the tasks requires the involvement of dozens of specialists from various fields of science and art. For this reason, the staff of Studio Olafur Eliasson was expanded to 90 people.
Philosophy of Eliasson's work
The study of perception, movement, bodily experience, sense of self, and society is how the master defines the priorities of his work. The artist uses painting, sculpture, photography, animation, film, and installation to achieve his goals. The desire to reach the viewer's highest possible level of immersion in the artificial space forced Eliasson to leave the cramped walls of galleries and museums to create large-scale projects in the urban and natural environment. To do this, he painted rivers green, placed fragments of an iceberg in the center of Copenhagen, and created a semblance of the sun with hundreds of light bulbs and artificial waterfalls on the coast of Manhattan. The scale of the artist's projects can only be compared with the depth of the philosophy of his art.
Revealing the motives of his work, in an interview, Eliasson said that it is essential for a contemporary artist to maintain independence from political and commercial interests. In this way, masters can avoid the functionalization of their works and remain faithful to the principles of free art.
«Olafur Eliasson». Photos © grupoeducar.cl
Another vital motive of Eliasson's work is the fight against climate change. The artist devoted several large-scale works to this topic. The attention of master is attracted to environmental issues not only because of their importance for the global society. His childhood was during the large-scale energy crisis of the 70s when most Danes had to save electricity and live in blackouts.
The most exciting works of Studio Olafur Eliasson
Every year Eliasson's studio presents new paintings, sculptures, and installations to the public. They are all united by a characteristic style and a reference to the problem of human-environment interaction. Below we will get acquainted with the most exciting works of Eliasson.
"Life" (2021)
The installation "Life" was on view from April to July 2021 at the Beyeler Foundation in Rienne, Switzerland. Inside the façade of the one-story building, Studio Olafur Eliasson employees equipped several shallow pools with green water and lilies. Visitors could walk through the masonry in the middle of the flooded rooms decorated with art materials. The harmonious fusion of the urban and natural environment was ensured by the roof of the building decorated with translucent polymers: the entire space inside is flooded with gentle light. This environment is conducive to meditative reflections on the environment and possible ways of harmonious coexistence between man and the natural world.
"Navigation star for utopia" (2022)
The art object under this name appeared in the Italian Museum of Modern Art Castello di Rivoli in 2022. It is a sphere reinforced with wide rings and a framed cube. The outer perimeter of the art object is made of transparent material that transmits light from an electric bulb. Outwardly, it resembles a navigation device as a compass rose. The work summed up Eliasson's experiments with navigation devices and became a symbol of humanity's desire to find the way to the lost paradise.
"Green Light" (2017)
In 2017, Studio Olafur Eliasson and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum held an event called "Green Light" at the 57th Venice Biennale. According to the organizers' idea, the participants took an educational course, got acquainted with the migration problem, and learned how to create green lamps that symbolize care for people forced to leave their homes.
«Green Light». Photos © ngprague.cz
Polymers derived from recycled waste were used for the green lights. The educational program also included language courses, workshops, artists' performances, and film screenings.
"Loudspeaker of the Earth" (2020-2022)
Eliasson held a large-scale event at the intersection of art and popular science from 2020 to 2022. The project's main idea was to create a unique space where adults could hear children's thoughts about the planet's future. During two years, about 10,000 messages were collected. A particular virtual space was created to present them with a map of our world and geometrics with children's notes. The speakers of the earth were people from 120 countries. All messages were read aloud with animated images of various objects of nature and the urban environment.
"Shadows traveling on the daytime sea" (2022)
Permanent installations in the form of art objects made of steel, fiberglass, and glass mirrors were placed in the desert of Doha, Qatar. The project's main idea is to allow the viewer to feel the depth of the surrounding space and get an unforgettable aesthetic experience right in the middle of the sands of the hot desert. Round canopies give travelers a saving shadow and the opportunity to see the dunes in the mirror. In this installation, the artist refers to the traditional theme of human connection with the earth.
KyivGallery art critic