PL a yI N G wI t H

Artist Olafur Eliasson Urges Us To “See Ourselves Seeing” Through The Windows Of Louis Vuitton’s Stores pE r cE p tiOn “All too often, the museum and exhibition scene makes the public passive, instead of stimulating it. If the public gets involved in a stimulating situation, the situation commits itself in return. There’s a reversal of subject and object: the viewer becomes the object and the context becomes the subject. I always try to turn the viewers into what’s on show, make them mobile and dynamic.” Whether lying under the “sun” in The weather project at Tate Modern, walking on The very large ice floor in Sãão Paulo, seeing yourself seeing through Louis Vuitton’s store windows in Eye see you, or working out how the Reversed waterfall works (or doesn’t), it’s the way people respond to his work that interests Olafur Eliasson. “Something happens in the spaces between the visitors in a room full of people, waves are generated by their body movements. The engagement in the artistic situation is not only a question of focusing one’s attention or awareness on the relation between artwork and situation, but it is also very physical depending on the other visitors and their movements. I’m very interested in unfolding the potential that art has as a participant in general social discourse, as I believe that it may contribute with important reflections in society,” he explains.

Studio Olafur Eliasson employs around 30 architects and specially trained craftsmen to work on projects that examine the relationship between nature, technology, architecture and human perception. The studio has recently designed the outer shell for the Icelandic Concert and Conference Centre – the new national concert hall overlooking Reykjavik and its harbour that will be home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra – opening in 2009. The eight-storey crystalline edifice, designed in collaboration with Henning Larsen Architects will reflect the intensity and colours of the sky depending on the time of day, the weather and the season. Eliasson was also recently commissioned to evaluate the future arts communication of the Smithsonian Institution’s Hirshhorn Museum

and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, which has, among other things, resulted in a doubling of the museum’s exhibition space. Look out for TYT (Take your time) the new magazine from Studio Olafur Eliasson, the contents of which are featured in this issue’s supplement. Text Lotte Ould

In 2006, Louis Vuitton commissioned Olafur Eliasson to create an artwork for their Christmas windows. The artist donated his fees to 121Ethiopia.org, a charity improving the lives of many of the country’s children. Following this project, Another Man and Louis Vuitton present a special artist’s supplement exclusive to this issue. Visit www.olafureliasson.net

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