Reality machines

Olafur Eliasson’s two contemporary exhibition in Stockholm are conceived to continue the processes of negotiation and co-production that characterise our shared reality.

Olafur Eliasson, <i>Seu corpo da obra (Your body of work), 2011. Test at Studio Olafur Eliasson</i>, 2015. © 2015 OLafur Eliasson. Photo: Maria del Pilar Garcia Ayensa
Olafur Eliasson explores the spaces in which we dwell, with works ranging from unassuming sculptures to larger architectonic structures. His works are in dialogue with ecology, architecture and urban spaces, but also with philosophy and science.
Thus, it is only natural for the neighbouring institutions Moderna Museet and ArkDes to present Eliasson’s unusually expansive artistic output, letting his installations fill both museum buildings.
Olafur Eliasson, <i>Beauty</i>, 1993. Installation view at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, 2011. © Olafur Eliasson, Photo: María del Pilar García Ayensa / Studio Olafur Eliasson Courtesy Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Top: Olafur Eliasson, Seu corpo da obra (Your body of work), 2011. Test at Studio Olafur Eliasson, 2015. © 2015 OLafur Eliasson. Photo: Maria del Pilar Garcia Ayensa. Above: Olafur Eliasson, Beauty, 1993. Installation view at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, 2011. © Olafur Eliasson, Photo: María del Pilar García Ayensa / Studio Olafur Eliasson Courtesy Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
“I strongly believe that it isn’t necessary to polarise the fields of art and architecture. Rather, it’s about trying to transgress the traditional boundaries to create a space of inclusion and hospitality, where differences of opinion are not only tolerated but encouraged. When you enter my exhibition, you do not step out of the city of Stockholm and into the protected world of art, but continue the processes of negotiation and co-production that characterise our shared reality.” Olafur Eliasson explains.
The exhibition starts with the work Model room (2003), a landscape of three-dimensional geometric objects, some of which were further developed and later realised in architectonic installations and pavilions. Nature, via phenomena such as wind and water, is examined by Eliasson in several installations, as material rather than as theme. In the work Moss wall (1994) that appears in the first room of the exhibition, one of the walls is covered by a dense carpet of reindeer moss. Instead of depicting nature, its flora has literally entered the institution. The same mindset is found in ecology and in the relatively new discipline known as object-oriented ontology. It calls into question a long-dominant anthropocentric view, in which mankind has established its superior position at the expense of animals and nature.
Olafur Eliasson, <i>Big Bang Fountain</i>, 2014. Installation view at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris 2014 © Olafur Eliasson, Photo: Thilo Frank / Studio Olafur Eliasson, Courtesy of of the artist;
Olafur Eliasson, Big Bang Fountain, 2014. Installation view at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris 2014 © Olafur Eliasson, Photo: Thilo Frank / Studio Olafur Eliasson, Courtesy of of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Eliasson gives light and colour the same significance as more physically tangible materials. Optical phenomena are investigated and examined. In Room for one colour (1997), a room is filled with a yellow mono-frequency light in which the eye can only distinguish yellow and black. When the viewer leaves the yellow room, an after-image in the complementary colour (blue) remains on the retina. The phenomenon is fleeting and fades away after the initial exposure. The work exists not only inside the room but is assimilated by the viewer.

Movement in various forms characterises many of the exhibition’s installations. Sometimes movement is an inherent part of the work, as in Ventilator (1997), where a fan circulates in irregular ellipses above the visitors’ heads. In other works the components are static, and the viewer’s own movements take centre stage, as in Beauty (1993) where the perception of the work is entirely dependent on viewer’s position in the room. In some cases viewers move through the work, as in Seu corpo da obra (Your body of work) (2011). In this installation, monochromatic colour filters create semi-transparent walls that float in the room. A labyrinthine architecture of coloured space is created. Through the viewer’s movements in the room, the filter’s three colours – magenta, yellow, and cyan – can be seen overlapping in a variety of configurations as various hues emerge in the viewer’s vision.


3 October, 2015 – 17 January, 2016
Olafur Eliasson
Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines

curated by Matilda Olof-Ors
Moderna Museet and ArkDes
Stockholm

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