The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (48) is one of the world’s most acclaimed international contemporary artists. His exhibition “Reality Machines” is now on display in Moderna Museet, Stockholm through 17 January.
A fan circles in an irregular orbit above our heads, water squirts up in cascades, and in another room we can walk in a labyrinthine architecture of coloured space. These works are part of the exhibition Olafur Eliasson “Reality machines”, organized by Moderna Museet in association with ArkDes (the Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design).
Many objects revolve around in which way we look at them and from where we look. Between two of the rooms at this exhibition spherical glass balls are wiggling both light and space. Everything is turned upside down and moves around in the glass mirror as one moves around it.
Since the early 1990s, Olafur Eliasson’s works have been presented in countless exhibitions all over the world. Eliasson uses a variety of media, including sculpture, photography, film and installation, but he also creates architectural projects and site-specific pieces for public spaces. Light, wind and water in every conceivable form feature prominently. And yet, nature is present in the works as material rather than as subject matter.
Eliassen is a good magician. Visitors are staring wide-eyed and fascinated while the miracle is unfolding. A little magic is not to be despised, but afterwards not so much is remembered. As magicians most, Eliasson is more concerned with the performance of the trick itself than the magical extension of it. It is a designed and groomed nature Eliasson conjures up for us. The wild has disappeared.
In the encounter with Eliasson’s installation, it is not always obvious where the art object ends and the viewer begins. The focus shifts from the art object itself to the actual experience of seeing. Eliasson’s works also give rise to situations that challenge, renegotiate and reinterpret our perception of reality.
Olafur Eliasson (b.1967) has exhibited in most great museum institutions and contributed his art to a number of construction projects, among them the roof on AaroS in Aarhus, Denmark and the Oslo Opera House.
All images: Moderna Museet, Stockholm, except Feature image (on top) Olafur Eliasson.
Featyre image (on top) Passageway
Magic Art in Stockholm, compiled by Admin.