Studio Olafur Eliasson

Excerpt from Jacques Derrida ‘White Mythology’, in Margins of Philosophy

Each time that there is a metaphor, there is doubtless a sun somewhere; but each time there is sun, metaphor has begun. If the sun is metaphorical always, already, it is no longer completely natural. It is always, already, a luster, a chandelier, one might say an artificial construction, if one could still give credence to this signification when nature has disappeared. For if the sun is no longer completely natural, what in nature does remain natural?

Jacques Derrida, ‘White Mythology’

28/01/2015

World illuminator on the rooftop of Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris

As part of Olafur Eliasson’s exhibition Contact, the sun tracker has been installed on the exterior of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The work directs sunlight to an intermediary mirror and through a skylight, thus illuminating the artist’s geometrical sculpture Dust particle.

The sun tracker redirects sunlight onto a fixed point by adjusting a mirror in concert with the ‘movement’ of the sun across the sky. The apparatus belongs to a family of optical devices known formally as heliostats – a word deriving from Greek roots that mean stationary sun.

28/01/2015

To track the sun is to track yourself. The sun tracker locates the centre of your orbital ellipse, giving your position right now and rendering visible your path. The reflexive potential lies in understanding that the sun does not rise or set; it is we who are the mirrors, who are circulating, tracking, spinning in our Keplerian ellipses. I want to encourage seeing yourself in a non-egoistic way. You and I are not the centre of the universe, but in fact spinning in altruistic space.

Olafur Eliasson

27/01/2015

Now: Last chance to see Turner colour experiments at Tate Britain, London
On view until Sunday 25 January

23/01/2015

From representation to presence: Roundtable discussion between Olafur Eliasson, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Laurence Bosse, Michel Bitbol, and Claire Denis at Fondation Louis Vuitton
Poetry recital by Cia Rinne

23/01/2015