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The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022 - Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg
The curious museum wall, 2022
Esbjerg Kunstmuseum, Denmark – 2022
Photo: Anders Sune Berg
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This artwork by Olafur Eliasson transforms the new wall between the courtyard of the museum and the square at its entrance into an enigmatic optical device that connects the inside of the institution with the city that surrounds it. The white wall is perforated by a series of four large congruent right triangles, rotated and flipped along different axes, and four smaller triangles that echo the larger ones. Each opening is in fact one side of a rudimentary kaleidoscope made from abutting mirrors that taper from the large openings on the one side to smaller ones on the other.

Angled plates have been mounted around the smaller openings to conjure precise illusions of complex geometrical light forms that seem to float within the wall. The eight polyhedrons featured in the work, four on each side of the wall, are the product of many years of research at Studio Olafur Eliasson, in Berlin.

The openings provide visual and aural connections between inside and outside of the courtyard by incorporating viewers from either side of the wall and the surrounding city and garden in fragmentary shapes and reflections.

 

 

 

Artwork details

Title

The curious museum wall

Year

2022

Materials

Stainless steel, polished stainless steel