ART-PRESENTATION: Olafur Eliasson-Reality machines
Olafur Eliasson is known for sculptures and large-scale installations employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. Although Eliasson’s work has been exhibited all over the world, this is the first time his oeuvre has been featured in a major museum presentation in Stockholm.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Moderna Museet/ArkDes Archive
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. So is natural for the neighbouring institutions Moderna Museet and ArkDes to present 19 works and installations of the artist including “Less ego Wall”, a new piece created especially for this exhibition. The exhibition “Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines” spans his entire career so far, from the early ‘90s to today. The works draw our attention not only to what we see, but to how we see, or, in the artist’s own words: “Seeing yourself seeing”. The exhibition starts with the work “Model room”, 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 in several installations, as material rather than as theme. In the work “Moss wall”, one of the walls is covered by a dense carpet of reindeer moss. Instead of depicting nature, its flora has literally entered the institution. Sometimes movement is an inherent part of the work, as in “Ventilator”, 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”, 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)” in this installation, monochromatic color filters (magenta, yellow, and cyan) create semi-transparent walls that float in the room. Through the viewer’s movements in the room, the filter’s colours can be seen overlapping in a variety of configurations as various hues emerge in the viewer’s vision. Olafur Eliasson gives light and colour the same significance as more physically tangible materials. Optical phenomena are investigated and examined in “Room for one colour”, 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 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.
Info: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines, Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors, Moderna Museet, Skeppsholmen & ArkDes, Exercisplan 4, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, Duration: 3/10/15-17/1/16, Days & Hours for both institutions: Tue & Fri: 10:00-20:00, Wed, Thu, Sat & Sun: 10:00-18:00, www.modernamuseet.se & www.arkdes.se
