The collectivity project

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson installed on the High Line, in New York, an interactive imaginary cityscape built with over two tons of white legos.

Presented by Friends of the High Line, Olafur Eliasson’s The collectivity project is a participatory installation of an imaginary cityscape built with over two tons of white LEGO bricks.

Part of the collective exhibition “Panorama”, Eliasson’s work invites vsitors to play with the installation, building and rebuilding the structures over time.

Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line

As the inevitable entropy of the piece begins to soften the hard edges of the designed structures, and mounds of loose pieces gather in the corners between buildings, a beautiful collective creation takes form. Installed in the growing shadow of the real estate development of Hudson Yards, the mutable, human-scale artwork provides a compelling counterpoint to the concrete-and-steel towers that form the project’s backdrop. The collectivity project has previously been installed in public squares in Tirana, Albania (2005), Oslo, Norway (2006), and Copenhagen, Denmark (2008).

Olafur Eliasson, <i>The collectivity project</i>, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line
Olafur Eliasson, <i>The collectivity project</i>, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line
Olafur Eliasson, <i>The collectivity project</i>, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line
Olafur Eliasson, <i>The collectivity project</i>, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line
Olafur Eliasson, <i>The collectivity project</i>, 2015. Part of “Panorama”, a High Line Commission. Photo by Timothy Schenck. Courtesy of Friends of the High Line


until September 30, 2015
Olafur Eliasson
The collectivity project

High Line
New York