Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) – Danish-Icelandic artist, graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, unquestionably one of the most fascinating contemporary artists. Studio Olafur Eliasson, established by the artist in 1995 in Berlin, is a unique experimental laboratory gathering an extensive group of architects, engineers and craftsmen, who together “take on the challenge of testing artistic ideas in different formats”. The formats of Elisson’s projects are versatile indeed – they range from works on display in galleries and museums around the world, to monumental projects in public space, such as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion (2007), the gigantic New York City Waterfalls (2008), or the extraordinary installation Weather Project (2003) exhibited in the Tate Modern, London; to commercial artistic projects commissioned by such brands as BMW or Louis Vuitton. The artist represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2003.
Shortly after the artist’s individual exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and in the famous P.S. 1 in the summer of 2008, GK Collection was informed about his new work “Abstract Afterimage Star”, a colourful version (and the only continuation) of an earlier installation in which white geometric figures were projected onto a screen. The work soon became an important acquisition to Grażyna Kulczyk collection and inspired further purchases of Olafur Eliasson’s photographic works. As a result Art Station was able to organize a very important exhibition – the first exhibition of Olafur Eliasson’s work in Poland.
The works featured in the exhibition focused on a topic that has been predominant in Eliasson’s work since the beginning of his career, that is, on issues of perception, and especially colour perception. Through our presentation we intended for viewers to discover the artist’s amazing fascination with the relationship between light and colour. We thus wanted to emphasize one of the fundamental features of Olafur Eliasson’s art – a desire to make the viewer realize his or her own role in experiencing the surrounding reality and, even more importantly, to convince the viewer that perception is never an objective act. Relying on the theory of optics, Eliasson uncovers different perceptual mechanisms right before the viewer’s eyes, encouraging them to engage in the co-creation of meanings. As a result, the viewer becomes a co-producer of the work of art, while the artist’s role is only to provide visual stimulation and ample room for individual reaction. The idea behind the exhibition was to sensitize the audience to the fact that a work of art is a visual challenge for each of its recipients and to bring them closer to one of the most interesting phenomenon on the world’s art scene.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue with texts authored by Prof. Krystyna Wilkoszewska, analyzing Eliasson’s work from the point of view of philosophical theories of perception, and Frances Morris – head of Collections (International Art) at the Tate Modern, London and co-curator of the Weather Project in 2003. An important integral part of the exhibition was a specially arranged reading-room, where the visitors had an occasion to familiarize themselves with the most representative publications devoted to the work of Olafur Eliasson, including the impressive TASHEN publication “Studio Olafur Eliasson. An Encyclopaedia”. The exhibition was held under the honorary patronage of the Danish Embassy. In the accompanying events program there was a meeting with Jozef Robakowski combined with a presentation of his works under the title “Uwaga: Światło!” [“Warning: Light!”]; a lecture by Prof. Krystyna Wilkoszewska, which provided a continuation of her essay published in the exhibition catalogue; as well as lectures by Dorota Luczak and Magdalena Moskalewicz, PhD students at the Department of Art History, Adam Mickiewicz University.
Olafur Eliasson born 1967, graduate of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (1989 – 1995), lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin, where he runs his Studio. Studio Olafur Eliasson (www.olafureliasson.net) is a team of architects, engineers, craftsmen and assistants who combine their efforts working on Eliasson’s installations, sculptures and monumental projects. Since the mid-1990s, the artist has been active producing his projects and presenting his art in galleries all around the world. His work is found in many private and public collections. One of the most famous realizations by Eliasson is the Weather Project (2003) installed at London’s Tate Modern – a gigantic sun-disc made up of hundreds of lamps emitting yellow light integrated with a system of mirrors. In 2003, the artist represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale. Between 2007 and 2008, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) organized the first major retrospective of the artist’s oeuvre titled “Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson”. One of Eliasson’s latest large-scale realizations is the monumental installation New York City Waterfalls – four man-made waterfalls on the east River in New York Harbour.