Olafur Eliasson
dal 26/11/2010 al 26/11/2011
Segnalato da
26/11/2010
Olafur Eliasson
Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj
The exhibition is the final instalment in Arken's 3-year Utopia series. Eliasson completes the project with a work highlighting the utopian potential inherent in the individual's relation to the surrounding world. The installation Din blinde passager (Your blind passenger) is a 90-metre-long tunnel. Entering the tunnel, your body is surrounded by dense fog. With visibility at just 1.5 metres, museumgoers have to use senses other than sight to orient themselves in relation to their surroundings.
Olafur Eliasson has developed a new installation specially for ARKEN’s most striking gallery, the
150-metre-long, hull-shaped Art Axis.
Eliasson’s installation Din blinde passager (Your blind passenger) is a 90-metre-long tunnel.
Entering the tunnel, your body is surrounded by dense fog. With visibility at just 1.5 metres,
museumgoers have to use senses other than sight to orient themselves in relation to their
surroundings. Accordingly, the work demands your singular, intense attention.
The exhibition is the final instalment in ARKEN’s three-year UTOPIA series. Eliasson completes
the project with a work highlighting the utopian potential inherent in the individual’s relation to
the surrounding world.
Eliasson says:
“For me, utopia is linked to the now, the moment between one second and the next. It
constitutes a possibility that is actualised and converted into reality, an opening where concepts
like subject and object, inside and outside, proximity and distance are tossed into the air and
redefined. Our sense of orientation is challenged and the coordinates of our spaces, collective
and personal, have to be renegotiated. Changeability and mobility are at the core of utopia.”
Eliasson personally describes his works as “experiments.” The artist employs light, colour and
natural phenomena like fog and waves to test how physical movement and the interaction of
body and brain influence our perception of our surroundings. A central idea is to get us, the
viewers or users of his works, to examine the conditions of our perceptions through individual
experience, enabling us to reassess our concepts of what it means to be and act in the world.
Christian Gether, director of ARKEN, says:
“Olafur Eliasson is extremely interesting, because he takes a new view of the institution of the
museum. He does not see the museum as separate from the world but as a concentrate of the
world – a space made available for the contemplation of human relations. Hence, he is the ideal
artist to conclude the UTOPIA project.”
A new way of running a museum
The UTOPIA project examines the role of utopia in contemporary art and culture. In
conjunction with the UTOPIA project, ARKEN has focused on promoting a new museum
practice – a new way of running a museum that actively employs art to stimulate broader
debate and understanding.
The UTOPIA project is supported by the Nordea-fonden
Image: Test for Din blinde passager (Your blind passenger), 2010, foto Studio Olafur Eliasson © 2010 Olafur Eliasson
Press contact
Helle Qvistgaard hq@arken.dk
Lea Bolvig lb@arken.dk
The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday 27 November 2010
ARKEN - Museum of Modern Art
Skovvej 100, Ishøj (DK)
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10-17
Wednesday 10-21. Monday closed
Admission: Adults DKK 85, Pens. /stud. DKK 70
Children (0-17 yr) free, Groups (min. 10) DKK 75