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. — The Art Newspaper

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?” — telegraph.co.uk

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... — artnet.com

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. — phaidon.com

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. — reuters.com

...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. — Art Net

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 [...]. — apollo-magazine.com

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. — bustler.net

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. — bustler.net

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. — tate.org.uk

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. — guardian.co.uk