Olafur Eliasson Interview: A Riverbed Inside the Museum

Like lava from a volcano, Olafur Eliasson’s fascinating installation ‘Riverbed’ runs through the Danish Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The highly praised artist here shares his intriguing thoughts behind the installation.
“The currency of trust” is the fundament on which ‘Riverbed’ is built - an installation that, according to Eliasson, bears resemblance to both the contemplative power of a Japanese garden as well as of ancient Pompeii after the destructive outbreak of Mount Vesuvius. In our society, a lot of things are defined by exclusion, and public institutions such as museums have to show that they have full trust in the artwork, the artist and the visitor in order for the latter to feel completely included. “If an audience feels trusted, then they dare to get involved”, says Eliasson. To fully experience the installation, the visitors have to feel comfortable destabilizing themselves on purpose, in this case e.g. by rethinking their way of walking on the many rocks of his work.
The concept of reality intrigues Eliasson, who finds that the way we engage in the world is based on our ‘model’, whether it be a social, cultural or other type of model: “The way we take in the world is not natural, it’s cultural.” Thereby, it becomes a construction in which “the authorship of reality lies within the beholder and the museum is constituted by the visitor.” In other words, reality becomes the way in which you choose to perceive or handle your model. ‘Riverbed’ is thus a part of this unreality, for as Eliasson concludes, “There are no real things.”
Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) works with sculpture, painting, photography, film and installations. He grew up in Iceland and Denmark and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine arts from 1989-1995. In 1995 he moved to Berlin where he founded Studio Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson is behind many major exhibitions and projects around the world, such as ‘The Weather Project’ at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2003, ‘Take Your Time: Olafur Eliasson’ organized by SFMOMA in 2007, which travelled until 2010 to major venues such the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and ‘Riverbed’ at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in 2014. Among Eliasson’s projects in public space are ‘Green River’, carried out in various cities from 1998-2001 and ‘The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion’ in 2007 in collaboration with Kjetil Thorsen of Snøhetta. He lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.
Olafur Eliasson was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark in 2014.
Camera: Klaus Elmer
Edited by: Kamilla Bruus
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner, 2014
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Supported by Nordea-fonden

[@jurgenczwienk1960]

If you swim in the rhine, ears underwater, you will hear the mourning of his power and movement. Transporting the pepples from the alps to the sea. Sound of of an unbelievable power. Constant flow.

[@marcelaolmedo4369]

I loved it. Listening to the interview, you link to experiential learning (what I work on as part of my profession), to philosophy, to art, of course, and it is great to work from this exhibition into a more "systems thinking" (another element I work on) linking all the elements. Lovely, inspirational, amazing connection. Thanks again.

[@JACKOJACKO121]

lol this reminds me of alot of then i have to talk to my toutors in art collage and after a while i forget why i started talking in the first place and construct hughe winding narrtives that at the end of the day are perhaps completely irrelvant to the work. none the less this is such a surreal and beautifull pice

[@erincarr9411]

Jack O'flynn it's a conversation, art with the viewer, the artist with the work, the viewer to the work and the artist, and the work with the artist. Then it goes on from there, the viewer to others and so on.

[@davidelaguidara9642]

That is a wonderful explanation of reality, I have never heard a similar one before. Brilliant, inspiring, it is a real pleasure to listen to this exceptional theory. Wow!

[@leilaghasempor5558]

Thanks for uploading, it was great :)

[@sunburnramthem2373]

so on and so forth

[@keyannahayes1114]

Every interview 😂😂

[@brettlundy4603]

I thought it was fantastic. As to the earth roomul manifestations of hatred and greed and fear. Look at the difference between this and Tilted Arc where Serra and his supporters defend the Arc as great despite it's public context. I appreciate his inquiring which led to this work. Look at his tremendous successes with the waterfalls in NYC, the weather project ar rhe Tate or the rainbow ring somewhere in Scandanavia.

[@skstan1965]

he is a copyist - earth room in nyc. Ice Watch is also French global designer watch company - Elliason hired a major Ad company to promote it, got paid millions by Bloomberg (he and Bloomberg refused to release the figures of the cost of the project or how much he was paid), so it is doubtful he did not realize the name was a watch company.

[@solomongryziak797]

I mean what is doubtfall, the effect, I think if anything people hated that piece because the where supposed to. It wasn't about illisting joy or wonder, it was bleak and harsh, but also it was appropriate and real.

[@neoseyes]

Han er en av de få kunstnerne jeg vet om som sier ting det er verdt å lytte til.

[@brutecoan7975]

Write a book

[@anamaartineez4960]

mediocre