“Be
very sensitive to where you are, in what times and in what parts of
the world, and how that constitutes the artistic practice,” Olafur
Eliasson
“Artists should have confidence in the fact that making a drawing is changing the world.” Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson, here presents his strong and personal advice to young artists.
“Making art is making the world”, Eliasson continues, stressing his point that art should not be marginalized, as art is not fragile, but quite the opposite: “Working with art is working with something that is very fierce, very strong and very robust.”
Artists should be very sensitive to their surroundings and the context in which they find themselves. They should, however, also stay true to themselves and make sure that the strong market and its attractiveness does not commercialize them.
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