“Olafur Eliasson: Verklighetsmaskiner/Reality Machines”

Curated by Matilda Olof-Ors

Olafur Eliasson has gained an international following by making architecture disappear. Many of his best-known works have subsumed the fixed geometries of institutional buildings into more fluid and ephemeral environments in which the viewer’s perception of space is shaped less by the layout of walls and floors than by the manipulation of atmospheric conditions, such as temperature or light. Two decades into his career, architects have taken note, and are increasingly implementing similar special effects, while Eliasson’s studio has metamorphosed into an eighty-person facility that would be the envy of any starchitect. Accordingly, the question faced by this exhibition (comprising seventeen installations, sculptural objects, and films from 1993 to today) is whether—even as art and architecture seem to be racing each other toward the apotheosis of eye-popping entertainment value—any transgressive frisson between the two disciplines is still possible.