The awe-inspiring creations of the Icelander-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who's team studio is based in Berlin, are essentially related to the infinite richness of the natural environments, phenomena and spectacle and to their transformational dynamics and cycles. His buildings', museums', gardens' or public spaces' installations, simultaneously monumental, immersive and experimental, explore spatiality and the ever-changing manifestation of forms, light, colours and reflections. The impressive displays also create sophisticated sets of perception and optical illusions, giving a central role to the visitor's point of view and to his interaction with the pieces. Including them as co-producers or co-doers of the installations, Eliasson invites the viewers to a complex multi-sensorial experience and to an active and aware participation. According to the artist, the capacity to envision the idiosyncrasy of perception of time and space tends to highlight the relativity, subjectivity, embodiment and flowing mobility underlying the mechanisms of aesthetics reception.

- White quasi brick
was produced in 2003, in the context of the large-scale installation entitled Lava Floor displayed at the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid, just after its first exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, in 2002.-
Consisting of volcanic black soil spread over the whole area of the exhibition space, - Lava Floor
contains a palpable reference to the 1977 Walter de Maria's - New York Earth Room
, a Manhattan 2nd floor loft entirely filled with black dirt against white walls. The 71 glazed white clay pieces appear to be an addition to the Reina Sofia - Lava Floor
edition, producing a striking contrast with the wild amorphous dark and rocky soil. The geometrical and abstract manmade forms may evoke the repeating patterns of salt or quartz crystals, which refer to nature's materials and resources, indispensable to humans. Reflecting the light and its movement, their appearance, and therefore their perception, are constantly changing in relation to the sun's motion throughout the day.



Katherine Sirois