Olafur Eliasson 'Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines' at Moderna Museet and ArkDes

On 3 October, 2015, #modernamuseet and ArkDes, the Center of Architecture and Design open their extensive exhibition on Olafur Eliasson, one of the most influential contemporary artists today. 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. Eliasson explores the spaces in which we dwell, with works ranging from unassuming sculptures to larger architectonic structures. Olafur Eliasson’s 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 #modernamuseet and ArkDes to present Eliasson’s unusually expansive artistic output, letting his installations fill both museum buildings.

“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

Olafur Eliasson (born 1967, Iceland/Denmark) is based in Copenhagen and Berlin, where Studio #olafureliasson employs some 90 staff members. Eliasson’s practice encompasses sculpture, painting, photography, film, installations, architectural projects and site-specific works in public spaces.
The exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines spans his entire career so far, from the early 1990s to today. Perception is central to the art of Olafur Eliasson. 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”.

“Olafur Eliasson shifts our focus from the art object itself to the actual experience of seeing. His installations are optical instruments that make us see the world around us in different ways. The works become machines that produce new realities," says Matilda Olof-Ors, exhibition curator.

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.

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.

Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines comprises 19 works and installations, including a new piece created especially for this exhibition: Less ego wall (2015).

In conjunction with Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines, a richly illustrated catalogue designed by Irma Boom, with essays by Matilda Olof-Ors and Timothy Morton and a conversation between #olafureliasson and Daniel Birnbaum, will be published in mid-November, 2015, by #modernamuseet in association with Koenig Books.

Artist talk Friday, 2 October, at 5 pm: #olafureliasson and Timothy Morton in conversation. More information will be available shortly on modernamuseet.se

Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines was organised by #modernamuseet in association with ArkDes, Centre of Architecture and Design.

The exhibition is supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Clear Channel.

Invitation to press preview on Thursday, 1 October, 2015, at 10 am
You are invited to a press preview of Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines, on Thursday, 1 October, 10 am–12 noon. Welcome address by Kerstin Brunnberg, director of ArkDes, and Daniel Birnbaum, director of Moderna Museet, followed by an introduction to the exhibition by curator Matilda Olof-Ors. #olafureliasson will be present.

RSVP for the press preview by Tuesday, 29 September to: press@modernamuseet.se
Please note that press accreditation is required for the press preview.


About Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson was born in 1967 and grew up in Iceland and Denmark. He now lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin. He gained wide recognition in 2003 for The weather project, an installation at Tate Modern in London. Among Eliasson’s public works are Green river, Stockholm (2000); The New York City Waterfalls (2008); the facades of Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre (in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects) (2005–2011); and Cirkelbroen (The circle bridge), Copenhagen, (2015). In 2009–2014, Eliasson was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he led the Institut für Raumexperimente. Since 2014, he has been an adjunct professor at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Studio #olafureliasson was established in 1995 in Berlin. In 2014, Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann founded Studio Other Spaces, an international office for art and architecture.

Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines


Invitation to press preview on Thursday, 1 October, at 10 am

Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality machines
Moderna Museet and ArkDes, Stockholm, 3 October, 2015 – 17 January, 2016
Curator: Matilda Olof-Ors