Olafur Eliasson
Born 1967, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lives and works in Berlin

Olafur Eliasson’s materials are elemental and ephemeral: light, heat, moisture, steam, and ice are manipulated by the artist towards aesthetic ends and in response to a specific site. His work navigates a space between nature and technology, the organic and the industrial. Your natural denudation inverted uses steam, which is a natural phenomenon in his ancestral homeland of Iceland but is here piped from the museum’s heating system to imitate a natural geyser. The components of Elaisson’s piece, which include steel scaffolding, industrially produced steam, and a constructed container of water, create an experience that is at once physical, sensory, and emotional.

Olafur Eliasson, Your natural denudation inverted, 1999, scaffold, wood, rubber, water, steam, 8 x 48 x 83 ft. (installation view)

Olafur Eliasson responds to questions in the Artists of the Week section of this site.

Olafur Eliasson’s installations have been presented in many international exhibitions since 1989, including Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (1996); Trade Routes: History and Geography. 2nd Johannesburg Biennale and 5th International Istanbul Biennial (1997); Sydney Biennial and XXIV Bienal de São Paulo (1998); and 48th Venice Biennale (1999). His photographs were shown in Sightings: New Photographic Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, and New Photography 14, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998). Solo exhibitions of his work were presented at neugerreimschneider, Berlin (1995); Kunstmuseet, Malmö (1996); Kunsthalle Basel (1997); Kjarvalstadir Museum, Reykjavik, Galerie für Zeitgenössiche Kunst, Leipzig, and Bonakdar Jancou Gallery, New York (1998); and De Appel Foundation, Amsterdam, and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (1999).

Education
1989-95 Royal Academy of Arts, Copenhagen

Selected Further Reading
Miles, Christopher. “Olafur Eliasson.” Artforum 37, no. 7 (March 1999): 119.

Haye, Christian. “The Iceman Cometh.” Frieze, no. 40 (May 1998): 62-65.

Birnbaum, Daniel. “Openings: Olafur Eliasson.” Artforum 36, no. 8 (April 1998): 106-107.

Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland. Olafur Eliasson (1997). Exhibition catalogue, texts by Jonathan Crary and Madeleine Schuppli.

Bonami, Francesco. “Psychological Atmospheres.” Siksi 12, no. 3 (fall 1997): 49-55.

Selected Links
www.uol.com.br/bienal/24bienal/nac/enacdinelia01.htm

www.moma.org/exhibitions/newphoto14/olafur_eliasson.html