‘Where in society can we still use our senses to define our surroundings, instead of just being defined by them?’ Many of Olafur Eliasson’s installations are based on this question.
Photography: Bob Goedewaagen
At this moment Eliasson has an exhibition is as well the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin as in the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam. In both the exhibitions, Eliasson’s work shows the direct relationship between the viewers and their surroundings.
For the Berlin exhibition Innen Stadt Außen, Olafur Eliasson mainly focuses on the senses sight and balance. He plays with the perception of the viewers on their surroundings. Only in the mist rooms the dominant sense of sight becomes partly inactive, allowing the senses hearing and touch to define the surrounding.
The viewers of the Rotterdam exhibition Notion Motion become conscious of the possibilities for changing their surroundings. It is not the surroundings that play a central part, but the individual.