Olafur Eliasson: What are you working on now?
On Earth Day 2020, the School of the Arts launches a new interview series with past visiting artists and thinkers. Renowned Danish-Icelandic visual artist Olafur Eliasson presented his work for the Columbia World Leaders Forum on September 26, 2019.
School of the Arts: What are you working on now?
Olafur Eliasson: The COVID-19 situation has provided me more time to think and read. At my studio in Berlin, we reacted quickly to this challenge by adopting alternative ways of working. Now I’m focusing on how I can contribute to the dialogue about what is currently happening in the world, working, for example, with a group of scientists to address the emotions and narratives associated with the changes. We’ll be asking people to contribute their thoughts and share their personal stories in statements along the lines of "I used to X, now I X," and we’ll probably add "In the future, I will X."
Over the past year, I’ve become more and more interested in art in the digital realm, which has become especially relevant now. This summer I am launching a large-scale project that I’ve conceived with young people. It’s a digital space in which they can express their views on the planet. Another project, Earth perspectives, launched on Earth Day, 22 April. It’s about how we compose images of the Earth and about how multiple perspectives must be able to coexist if we are to think holistically about the future of our planet. I’m also collaborating with Acute Art on an artwork that uses augmented reality.
School of the Arts: What are you thinking about now?
Olafur Eliasson: I am thinking that "sometimes the river is the bridge," to paraphrase John Ralston Saul. The fact that many people are turning to culture in these times of physical distancing is inspiring. Getting together around art, also online, is a way of finding space for imagination, of inventing worlds, of being together while staying apart. It testifies to the trust people feel in art, which I have long felt to be the case but now we know. My current show at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo didn’t open as planned in March, but you can visit it here.The artworks are sitting patiently in the museum, waiting to meet up with visitors once the virus has subsided.
In a conversation with School of the Arts Dean Carol Becker, Eliasson discussed his large-scale works such as Ice Watch and New York City Waterfalls, that sparked critical dialogue about climate change and our relationship to nature. You can watch Olafur Eliasson's full presentation online now.
More from Olafur Eliasson
In collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery's Back to Earth project, Eliasson shares new artwork titled Earth perspectives. According to the Serpentine Gallery, "[Earth perspectives] invites people to reflect on the co-existence of multiple world views."
On this new work Eliasson states: "Earth perspectives makes use of a simple optical phenomenon – the afterimage – to create a bridge between the familiar and the unknown. The artwork envisions the earth we want to live on together by welcoming multiple perspectives – not only human perspectives but also those of nature. A glacier’s perspective deviates from that of a human. The same goes for a river. On Earth Day, I want to advocate – as on any other day – that we recognise these various perspectives and, together, celebrate their co-existence."
