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USC School of Architecture hosts Olafur Eliasson in conversation with Johanna Burton ahead of PST ART on Sept. 9th

2024-09-05T14:03:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by USC School of Architecture

Next Monday, September 9th, the USC School of Architecture, in partnership with USC Visions & Voices and The Museum of Contemporary Art, will host a conversation between Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson and MOCA director Johanna Burton to mark the inception of the third Pacific Standard Time Art exhibition in Los Angeles.

Eliasson is the subject of an upcoming MOCA exhibition, Olafur Eliasson: Open, which runs through July 6th, 2025, at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA downtown space.

Olafur Eliasson and Johanna Burton. Image (Olafur Eliasson): Louise Yeowart, 2024, (Johanna Burton): Erin Leland

He and Burton will talk about the process for his work, which he does not view as completed until it engages an audience. Eliasson’s work has been exhibited this year at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) and Istanbul Modern, displaying the same confluence of science, art, and technology that forms the basis of this year’s PST ART: A...

Renzo Piano’s Istanbul Modern museum opens in Turkey

2023-05-03T14:06:00-04:00

The first dedicated museum of modern and contemporary art in Turkish history is finally opening its doors this week following the completion of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)-designed Istanbul Modern in the country’s most populous city.

Clad in an “iridescent” envelope of aluminum paneling that aims to resemble the scales of a fish, the 110,000-square-foot facility overlooks Istanbul’s Karaköy waterfront at the confluence of the Bosphorus Strait and Golden Horn waterways. In its site placement and silhouette, the structure evokes the passage of a ship through the harbor. The building’s ground floor is made transparent by a glass curtain wall that showcases two site-specific works by Richard Wentworth and Olafur Eliasson while offering visitors a panoramic view of the ongoing $1.8 billion Galataport development beyond.

Image: © Cemal Emden

RPBW says this material transparency “reflects the ethos of the museum: A multifaceted experience offering visitors audience-oriented exh...

Olafur Eliasson's mirrored desert installation in Qatar asks visitors to 'look down at the earth and self'

2022-11-04T12:36:00-04:00

Olafur Eliasson has completed a site-specific piece of public artwork in a northern-Qatari desert. Titled Shadows travelling on the sea of the day, the Icelandic-Danish artist’s work is inspired by the “interplay of human perception and the natural world.”

Eliasson’s piece comprises twenty mirrored circular shelters along with three single rings and two double rings. The rings are positioned according to the axes of a fivefold symmetrical pattern, while at the center, ten of the piece’s shelters are connected and arranged to form a five-pointed star.

Photo credit: Iwan Baan

Beneath the shelters, the ceilings are mirrored to reflect the earth. “Looking up, you come to realise that you are, in fact, looking down: at the earth and at yourself,” Eliasson explained. “Above and below, sand envelops you, together with anyone else sharing the space. To test what you see, you might extend an arm and wave to yourself or wiggle a foot while looking at your reflection. It is a kind of realty ch...

Look at the process behind Olafur Eliasson's colorful glass canopy in California Wine Country

2022-08-04T12:00:00-04:00

Work has been completed on the Vertical Panorama Pavilion in Sonoma, California. Designed by Studio Other Spaces, a Berlin studio founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann, the pavilion will be used as a space for wine tasting by The Donum Estate, one of California’s leading Pinot Noir producers.

Image © The Donum Estate and Studio Other Spaces

The scheme was conceived through a deep reflection on the site’s natural elements, taking what the designers call a “vertical slice” through the site. Such elements include the crunching sound of walking on a gravel path, the fragrances of surrounding soil and flora, the sound of wind, grass, and insects, and the formations of clouds and fog.

Image © The Donum Estate and Studio Other Spaces

The pavilion’s defining architectural feature is its conical canopy with a northern-oriented oculus, clad with 832 colored laminated glas...

David Chipperfield's reinvented Morland Mixité Capitale is now complete in Paris

2022-05-18T14:14:00-04:00

David Chipperfield Architects is celebrating the recent completion of their Morland Mixité Capitale project in Paris following six years of construction on a ‘Reinventing Paris’ scheme first announced by developer Emerige in 2016.

The firm’s Berlin office, in collaboration with CALQ, had been hard at work restoring and expanding the former Préfecture de Paris building into a new public attraction near Canal Saint-Martin.

Image © Simon Menges

Per the architects: “Two new building volumes facing the boulevard and the River Seine, which mediate between the scale of the existing and neighbouring buildings, contribute to the repair of the city. The volumes are raised above the ground to create a new public axis that provides a passage from the boulevard to the River Seine. Load-bearing, vaulted arcades characterize this passage at ground floor level and act as a counterpart to the stringent column grid of the existing ensemble. The complex accommodates a wide spectrum ...

Steel-frame construction tops out for OMA's Albright-Knox museum expansion

2021-07-23T17:01:00-04:00

The Albright-Knox Art Gallery has reached a major milestone in its ongoing $160 million expansion project overseen by Shohei Shigematsu and OMA in cooperation with Cooper Robertson.

Construction has topped out on the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building on the soon-to-be renamed museum’s Buffalo, New York campus, clearing the way for a 2022 reopening that will significantly improve the gallery’s historic footprint.

Albright-Knox Art Gallery Expansion, plaza view. Image courtesy OMA.

“This is a remarkable moment,” director Dr. Janne Siren said at a ceremony observing the occasion Wednesday. “We are about one year from the completion of this project that will make Buffalo and our community so proud, will create jobs and prosperity for the people who live here and will be an attraction for people from all across the world who will want to come and visit us,”

With the steel frame now in place, contractors will soon begin the concrete pour for the building with a glass-wall curtain installa...

Olafur Eliasson wants to bring nature into quarantined homes with his new AR art app WUNDERKAMMER

2020-05-14T18:50:00-04:00

Genre-spanning artist Olafur Eliasson just released WUNDERKAMMER, his latest augmented reality experience in collaboration with the Acute Art app.

"Now we are spending a lot of time indoors, so I thought, okay, let's make a work of art which takes the outside inside," Eliasson explains in a short video released alongside the WUNDERKAMMER app.

Video courtesy of Olafur Eliasson/Acute Art.

"Even though we can't go as much out as we want to, it's so important to kind of not forget that, once all of this is over, we have to look at our environment, we have to look at what is going on with regards to the things we care about so much."

Image courtesy of Olafur Eliasson/Acute Art.

The Acute Art app is available both on the App Store and on Google Play.

Netflix's Abstract Season 2 to profile Olafur Eliasson & Neri Oxman

2019-09-18T15:30:00-04:00

The new season of Abstract will launch globally on September 25th. The subjects featured in season 2 include:

Olafur Eliasson - the Icelandic-Danish artist known for his large scale immersive installations. He has used light, architecture, ecology, and digital design to challenge the assumptions many of us make about design and perception.

Neri Oxman - the Israeli-born artist, bio-sciences pioneer, architect, and MIT professor. She is known for her masterful ability to combine art and science in her creations.

Also featured will be toy designer Cas Holman, product designer Ian Spalter, and typeface designer Jonathan Hoefler.

The Arc de Triomphe is getting an Olafur Eliasson-designed light installation

2019-06-24T13:26:00-04:00

Olafur Eliasson has been commissioned to make a permanent lighting installation for the Arc de Triomphe, which is due to be inaugurated in 2020. Costing €3m, the project is being financed by the Fonds pour Paris, a foundation set up in 2015 by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo to restore Parisian heritage and support contemporary art.

Eliasson's proposal is still under wraps, and details won't be available until later this summer or early fall, reports The Art Newspaper.

It will be a busy year for the iconic landmark on the Champs-Élysées, as artist Christo also announced to wrap the Arc de Triomphe in 2020.

Olafur Eliasson produces architecture with artistry

2019-04-05T15:37:00-04:00

Few artists have dedicated their work to architectural space quite as much as Olafur Eliasson. His objects transform walls by their luminescence; his projections cast structure on structure; his geometry bends over backyards to multiply the qualities of sites. It is without doubt that one can place him on a list along with spatial artists including Dan Graham, Gordon Matta Clark and Kurt Schwitters.

Unspoken Spaces (Studio Olafur Eliasson), published by Thames & Hudson.

Perhaps the fact that Eliasson's contributions to architectural affect have been historically undermined led to Thames & Hudson's publication of Unspoken Spaces, a monograph of the artist's most architectural work. It begins with an introduction by Eliasson that highlights his innate inability to separate art from architecture: "The artwork in this book are mostly models for space, defined by movement. They are world-makers."

Cirkelbroen, by Studio Olafur Eliasson.

One of Eliasson's recent architectural projects, for ...

Architecture news in the year of news: June 2018 on Archinect

2018-12-22T12:55:00-05:00

Put simply, there was an overwhelming amount of news this year, and June was no exception. It was a big month for the world of architecture, but it also marked the beginning of a significant step for the small team at Archinect, too.

EVENTS:

↑ The Opening of Archinect Outpost

Archinect Outpost first opened its doors on June 15th with the sale of Ed Issue 2. It was our biggest step into the world of retail, and we have learned countless lessons since opening day. We exclusively sold architecture magazines at first, followed by the addition of architecture monographs, which was then quickly followed by the addition of numerous design objects and apparel items. It has been a rewarding six months being a part of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District community, and we are looking forward to what the future holds for our small but mighty retail space.

DESIGN:

↑ Olafur Eliasson completes his first building, Fjordenhus, in Denmark

The announcement of Olafur Eliasson's biggest architectural...

Olafur Eliasson links his breakdancing years to spatial thinking in art and architecture

2018-09-17T15:34:00-04:00

“As a teenager I became very interested in street-dance culture and was active on the Scandinavian breakdance scene,” the artist Olafur Eliasson tells his friend and collaborator Anna Engberg-Pedersen in our new book, Olafur Eliasson Experience. This admission is a slight understatement. In 1984, the nascent artist’s three-man troupe, Harlem Gun Crew, actually won the Scandinavian breakdancing championships.

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson discusses his teenage breakdancing years in relation to how he thinks of architecture and space. Eliasson links the body awareness of moving through an urban landscape in dance to his development in spatial thinking as an artistic practice in design and architecture.

Olafur Eliasson and IKEA are designing a series of affordable, solar-powered tools

2018-06-12T18:06:00-04:00

The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea are teaming up to produce a range of accessible and affordable tools that function without mains electricity and use renewable energy. Eliasson’s Little Sun project, co-founded with Frederik Ottesen, created a solar-powered torch for the 1 billion people worldwide who live off the power grid. It is now sold cheaply in more than 600 African outlets. [...] The products developed will be available in Ikea stores.

Olafur Eliasson is a busy man these days: after recently completing his first building, he's now announced a major design collaboration between his Little Sun initiative with IKEA to create a line of sustainable and affordable off-the-grid tools.

Little Sun Original in Burundi. Photo: Aminata Nimaga.

“Little Sun makes solar energy tangible and your world a little bit more sustainable," Olafur said. "We are excited to collaborate with IKEA, raising awareness for energy access and the need for global togetherness. Together, we want to connect the world by sharing the power of the sun with everyone."

Olafur Eliasson completes his first building, Fjordenhus, in Denmark

2018-06-01T19:45:00-04:00

Fjordenhus (Fjord House) is the first building designed entirely by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson. Located in Vejle, Denmark, Fjord House is set to open on June 9th. The structure rises out of Vejle Fjord and can be accessed through Havneøen (The Harbour Island).

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg.

The building was commissioned by KIRK KAPITAL as the company’s new headquarters and includes site-specific artworks by Eliasson with tailored furniture and lighting.

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg.

Fjordenhus by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann with Studio Olafur Eliasson, located in Vejle, Denmark. Image: Anders Sune Berg...

Olafur Eliasson's 'Green Light' responds to the refugee crisis in Europe

2016-05-17T11:30:00-04:00

Green Light is an artistic workshops that responds to the current situation in Europe, in which countless refugees are caught up in legal and political limbo. Together with TBA21 in Vienna, Olafur Eliasson has invited people from different backgrounds – refugees and locals – to take part in exchanges at TBA21-Augarten through a playful, creative process.

Over the course of the three-month project, which ends 5 June, participants put together Green light lamp modules designed by Olafur Eliasson on two days of the week and take part in practical workshops and language courses on two other days. During that time, TBA21 is also hosting a multifaceted programme of shared learning that features workshops, seminars, performances, screenings, lectures, and artistic interventions.

“Green light is an act of welcoming, addressed both to those who have fled hardship and instability in their home countries and to the residents of Vienna. I hope Green light shines light on some of the challenges a...

Olafur Eliasson: "The vast majority of architects are just filling up our society with trash"

2016-04-11T18:09:00-04:00

He seems hungry for a serious discussion on everything from the refugee crisis – “a really bad combination of European arrogance and North African ignorance” – to the state of contemporary architecture – “the vast majority of architects are just filling up our society with trash” – and has a habit of speaking about his art in overwhelmingly conceptual terms. “Are we consumers of space?” he asks himself at one point. “Or are we in fact producers of space?”

Olafur Eliasson to storm Versailles

2016-01-28T15:04:00-05:00

The Palace at Versailles has announced that Olafur Eliasson will display his artworks at the palace and its gardens this year. The Icelandic-Danish artist's exhibition will be on view from June through October, following the well-received installations of contemporary art at the baroque symbol of absolute monarchy by Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, and French artist Xavier Veilhan...

Related:

Olafur Eliasson wins a Crystal Award for "improving the state of the world"

2016-01-18T14:02:00-05:00

Congratulations are due to Olafur Eliasson who's just been given a Crystal Award for his "exemplary commitment to improving the state of the world". Ahead of the World Economic Forum, which takes place later this week in Davos, Eliasson was singled out for particular praise major works including The New York City Waterfalls, Ice Watch, The Weather Project, and Riverbed.

"Eliasson who joins fellow winners Leonardo DiCaprio (for his work publicising climate change) actress Yao Chen (for her work raising awareness of the refugee crisis) and will.i.am (for his leadership in creating educational opportunities for the underserved)."

More of Eliasson in the Archinect news:

Olafur Eliasson opens ship-themed pedestrian bridge in Copenhagen

2015-08-24T12:18:00-04:00

A pedestrian bridge designed by Olafur Eliasson has opened in Copenhagen, inspired by the Danish-Icelandic artist's childhood in Iceland. Reminiscent of sailing boats, Cirkelbroen, or circle bridge, is made of five circular platforms in different sizes, each with its own "mast", according to Danish foundation Nordea-fonden [...]. Spanning the Danish capital's Christianshavn canal, the bridge, some 40 meters-long (131 feet), has a section that swings open to allow boats to pass through.

Olafur Eliasson in the Archinect news:

Olafur Eliasson Wants You to Design Utopia (Out of Legos)

2015-06-03T13:11:00-04:00

...The Collectivity Project is about more than just play. Eliasson conceived of the project as a way to bring people together and allow them to create a utopian society, if only in miniature form. The idea, which is up until September 30, is at home at the 10th Avenue and West 30th Street section of the High Line, where the sounds of construction buzz in the background.

The project, which has previously had iterations in Norway and Albania, comprises a station set up on the High Line with piles of white lego pieces. The public is invited to collaborate on creating a miniature city. To kick off the fun, the High Line invited ten of the city's best-known firms – BIG, David M. Schwarz Architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, James Corner Field Operations, OMA New York, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, Selldorf Architects, SHoP, Steven Holl Architects – to create one "visionary structure or construction."

Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist known for large-scale, immersive installations that involve elemental materials, including light, heat, and water. For example, last year he turned the galleries of the Louisiana Museum in Denmark into a 'riverbed.' A few years ago, he gained major attention for a series of man-made waterfall structures in New York's East River. Eliasson also works in architecture often, such as with...

Graham Foundation Announces 2015 Individual Grants

2015-05-27T19:21:00-04:00

Olafur Eliasson, Charles Rice and Iwan Baan are among the artists, scholars, photographers, and other architecturally-oriented professionals who are being awarded individual grants by the Graham Foundation this evening. The awards ceremony and reception, which is being live streamed as of 6 PM CDT, is being held in The Madlener House, the foundation's headquarters since 1963. This year, the foundation is awarding $490,000 in grants for 63 projects to individuals who "advance new scholarship in the field of architecture, fuel creative experimentation and critical dialogue, and expand opportunities for public engagement with architecture and its role in contemporary society." The list of presenters at the ceremony includes Noritaka Minami, Candace Taylor, Lluis Ortega, and Tiffany Lambert, all of whom are 2015 grant winners.

There are five principal categories in which the awards have been granted: Exhibition, Film/Video/New Media, Public Program, Publication, and Research. Some of the...

Olafur Eliasson turns Louisiana MoMA into a 'Riverbed'

2014-08-19T14:04:00-04:00

Olafur Eliasson has tried something else. For his latest site-specific project, which opens on 20 August, the artist has transformed the entire south wing of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark into a convincing riverbed – a messy, stony accumulation of sedimentary rock and watery channels that threatens to silt up the white space of the gallery entirely. The result is an uncanny collision of manmade and natural views, and a Sublime reminder of the slow power of nature to erode [...].

Olafur Eliasson receives 2014 McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT

2013-10-29T19:56:00-04:00

It's a good week for Olafur Eliasson: earlier today, we reported that the Rolex Arts Initiative had selected the Berlin-based artist as its Visual Arts mentor for 2014-2015, and now we found out that MIT's Council for the Arts will present him with the 2014, 40th anniversary Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT. The award includes an artist residency, pop-up exhibitions, a public lecture, and a $100,000 cash prize. MIT students will also get to work on Eliasson’s Little Sun project.

Harpa Wins 2013 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award

2013-04-30T13:37:00-04:00

The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation have announced Harpa, the Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Center in Iceland, as the winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award.

The 'Emerging Architect Special Mention' award goes to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro for the Nave de Música Matadero (Red Bull Music Academy) in Madrid, Spain.

Previously: Five Finalists for 2013 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award

Olafur Eliasson Designs Mayors Challenge Award Trophy

2013-03-20T20:36:00-04:00

In our last news post, we reported about the city of Providence, RI winning the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge. Besides raking in the $5M top prize money, Providence can now also marvel at another perk that comes with winning the Grand Prize: a stunningly beautiful award trophy designed by acclaimed Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.

The award is a spherical model formed by three concentric circles – square, circle, and dodecagon – encircling a hanging compass. To design the award, Eliasson drew inspiration from the very spirit of The Mayors Challenge – fueling ideas and innovation for a better tomorrow for cities everywhere. No matter where the prize is placed or located, the compasses will point the same way – assisting viewers and uniting the prize winners in imagining their collective responsibility to navigate towards the greater good for all.

The Grand Prize award trophy will be installed at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum.

The other four cities that w...

Remarkable projects come from remarkable people

2012-11-15T12:22:00-05:00

Remarkable projects come from remarkable people and Inhotim is the creation of Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate who has lavishly installed his contemporary art collection across several hillsides in Minas Gerais, an estate of some 5000 acres. Paz has commissioned many architects, to make pavilions specially designed for individual artists, and others that house several artists’ works, all cushioned within the lush vegetation of a botanic garden.

Harpa – review

2011-08-28T00:18:00-04:00

The facade of Harpa is the work of an artist, the Icelandic-Danish Olafur Eliasson, who gets more attention and a higher billing than the hall's architects, the 52-year-old practice Henning Larsen Architects. They wear sober suits; Eliasson's leather waistcoat and silver-framed shades suggest creative leadership. His job is to provide that service that would once have been performed by Corinthian columns and statues of buxom nudes: to endow the house of culture with meaning and importance.