This catalogue was published on the occasion of the 24th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil. Inside and outside the Oscar Niemeyer biennial pavilion, Eliasson installed The very large ice floor, 1998, consisting of a shallow basin, the larger half abutting the inside of the transparent glass façade, the other and smaller half installed directly adjacent to the first, but outside the façade, on the plaza. The basins were filled with water and chilled to freezing point. The texture of the two ice surfaces reacted differently to the interior and exterior climates, and to the traffic of people walking across the ice.
Showing The very large ice floor only in passing, the catalogue brings together a selection of Eliasson’s early installations, drawings, and geometric studies as well as inspirational image material. These are intertwined with a series of short texts by Daniel Birnbaum, Frederikke Hansen, Christian Haye, Marianne Krogh Jensen, Lars Bang Larsen, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Sanne Kofod Olsen, Katya Sander, Christiane Schneider, Simon Sheikh, Francis Stark, Barbara Steiner, Gregory Volk, and Jan Winkelmann covering diverse topics that together constitute an abstract context for the works. The topics are: physics; the fictional nature of ‘nature’; empty space; art and amusement parks; the punctuated equilibria of evolution; the sun; the art of not writing about Eliasson and his work; flying and movement; the golf course as a constructed landscape; popular music; and the mythological meaning of caves. Also included is a patchwork short story on water and other poetic contributions.