Firefly double polyhedron sphere experiment - Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence – 2022 - Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

'Firefly double-polyhedron sphere experiment', 2020. Part of 'Olafur Eliasson: Nel tuo tempo’ at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio).

Under the weather, 2022 - Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence – 2022 - Photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio. Courtesy Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence

'Under the weather', 2022. Part of 'Olafur Eliasson: Nel tuo tempo’ at Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio).

Image used on Blog post '2021' (from S3)

'Olafur Eliasson: Nel tuo tempo’ (In your time) opens at Palazzo Strozzi this week on 22nd September. The exhibition brings together new and older works that respond to the Renaissance architecture of the palazzo, immersing the building in light, fleeting shadows, reflection, patterns, and intense colour.

Image: 'Just before now', 2022 (photo: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO Studio).

Dodecahedron, Your view matter, 2022, 2022, detail

'Your view matter', 2022.
A VR artwork by Olafur Eliasson presented by Metapurse & Acute Art. A new immersive artwork exploring bodily perception in the digital space, can be explored in VR today at yourviewmatter.art.

Rainbow compass, 2011 - Photo: Jens Ziehe, 2011

'Rainbow compass', 2011 (photo: Jens Ziehe).

Image used on Blog post '2014' (from S3)

'Vertical Panorama Pavilion', designed by Studio Other Spaces is now complete at the Donum Estate in Northern California.

Taking inspiration from the history of circular calendars, the wine-tasting pavilion has an elevated conical canopy lined with recycled glass panels. Stacked up vertically above 12 columns that emulate the months in a year, the colourful hues of the glass panels depict the weather conditions essential for the creation of Donum’s wine – solar radiance, wind intensity, temperature, and humidity. (Photo: Adam Potts)⁠⁠

Sonnenenergie 22 - Pinakothek der Moderne – 2022 - Photo: Juliane Eirich

Sonnenenergie 22’ (Solar energy 22), 2022. Currently on view at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, until 4 September 2022. Photo: Juliane Eirich

Firefly double-polyhedron sphere experiment, 2020 - Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin – 2021 - Photo: Jens Ziehe

Starting 22 September 2022, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi will be hosting a major exhibition 'Nel tuo tempo', exploring the art of Olafur Eliasson, whose multifaceted output invariably places the visitor at the heart of his reflection on the notion of shared experience and interaction with reality. Image: 'Firefly double-polyhedron sphere experiment', 2020 (photo: Jens Ziehe).

Seeing sensitivity flare, 2022 - PKM Gallery, Seoul – 2022 - Photo: PKM Gallery, Yongjoon Choi

Installation view of ‘Seeing sensitivity flare’, 2022 in Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Inside the new blind spots’ solo exhibition at PKM Gallery, Seoul. Photo: Yongjoon Choi / PKM Gallery

Installation view: Inside the new blind spots, 2022 - PKM Gallery, Seoul – 2022 - Photo: PKM Gallery, Yongjoon Choi

Installation view of Olafur Eliasson’s current solo exhibition ‘Inside the new blind spots’ at PKM Gallery, Seoul. Photo: Yongjoon Choi / PKM Gallery

Feeling backward, 2022 - Photo: Jens Ziehe

‘Feeling backward’, watercolour and pencil on paper, 2022. Photo credit: Jens Ziehe

Image used on Blog post '2007' (from S3)

‘The Seeing City’ is a new site-specific, permanent artistic installation designed by Studio Other Spaces (a studio for spatial experimentation co-founded by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann) for the top two floors of the former Préfecture de Paris on Boulevard Morland.

Sun window, 1997 - Kunsthalle Wien, 1997

Sun window’, installed Kunsthalle Wien, 1997. Some of the glass panes in a pre-existing window frame are covered with colour filters so that when the sun shines, the coloured glass creates a colourful pattern in the room inside.

Image used on Blog post '2004' (from S3)

Sonnenenergie 22’ (Solar energy 22), 2022. Currently on view at the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Photo: Gunnar Gustafsson

Talking to You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MP_nyqNJk

In celebration of Earth Day, you can watch the short film ‘Talking to You’ from Earth Speakr. Directed by Anni Ólafsdóttir. Narrated by Olafur Eliasson. Story and script by Eva Lind Höskulddsdóttir, Anni Ólafsdóttir, and Andri Snær Magnason. Based on messages from more than 10,000 children in more than 70 languages, all made with Earth Speakr.

‘We have now on our planet the largest generation of children Earth has ever seen. Through Earth Speakr, they showed us that they know what is happening and they know what needs to be done. And they know what kind of world they dream of. It is up to us to listen and take action.’ – Olafur Eliasson in ‘Talking to You’, 2022

Image used on Blog post '2001' (from S3)

Sonnenenergie 22’, 2022. On view at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich from the spring equinox to the fall equinox of 2022.

‘We humans are very familiar with the extraordinary importance of sunlight for all life on earth – after all, the path of the sun shapes the very rhythm of life and provides orientation in our world. The earth’s daily rotation and annual orbit make the sun the natural clock for all living creatures on our planet.’ – Olafur Eliasson

Big Bang Fountain, 2014 - Tate Modern, London – 2019 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Big Bang Fountain’, 2014. Installed at Tate Modern in London, 2019. Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Reversed waterfall, 1998 - Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, 2016 - Photo: Hyunsoo Kim

Reversed waterfall’, 1998. TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary collection. Now on view as part of the group exhibition ‘Abundant Futures’, curated by Daniela Zyman at Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía in Córdoba. Photo: Hyunsoo Kim

Din blinde passager, 2010 - Tate Modern, London – 2019 - Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Din blinde passager’ (Your blind passenger), 2010. Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Olafur Eliasson explores where we are now and how we navigate – in our everyday lives and in the highly complex world of today. One thing is to inquire into our sense of presence; another is to consider where we are going and what the future will look like… There’s only a slight risk of getting lost. Self-reflection and partial knowledge may accompany you.

Image used on Blog post '1994' (from S3)

Detail of ‘Unforgetting solar exposure’, watercolour, 2020

In this moment, we are reminded of how crises of war, authoritarianism, neoliberalism, and climate are highly intersectional. Each crisis cannot be tackled as a distinct challenge, they are all part of one picture.

In an article written in the first days of the war on Ukraine, Bill McKibben put forward an idea: ‘One way to dramatically reduce Putin’s power is to get off oil and gas … So now is the moment to remind ourselves that, in the last decade, scientists and engineers have dropped the cost of solar and windpower by an order of magnitude, to the point where it is some of the cheapest power on Earth. The best reason to deploy it immediately is to ward off the existential crisis that is climate change, and the second best is to stop the killing of nine million people annually who die from breathing in the particulates that fossil fuel combustion produces. But the third best reason – and perhaps the most plausible for rousing our leaders to action – is that it dramatically reduces the power of autocrats, dictators, and thugs.’

There is seemingly never a ‘good’ time to address the complex issues associated with crisis. But, there is reason to hope that, in response to these emergencies, we can coordinate international political will to encourage a sharp turn towards renewables. As Rebecca Solnit said, ‘It is important to say what hope is not: it is not the belief that everything was, is or will be fine...The hope I am interested in is about broad perspectives with specific possibilities, ones that invite or demand that we act. You could call it an account of complexities and uncertainties, with openings.’ Before a shift happens, it can seem impossible; afterwards, it seems inevitable.

To find further information on the intersectional nature of crises, visit our resource list here.

Image used on Blog post '1989' (from S3)

'Our Space to Help', a weekend-long fundraising event in support of Ukraine at Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Saturday, 5 March at 10:00 through Sunday, 6 March at midnight.
Image: Neue Nationalgalerie 2022 © Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Simon Menges

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