Olafur Eliasson
Frost Activity
January 17th – March 14th 2004
Reykjavik Art Museum – Hafnarhus
Tryggvagata 17, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Box 110, 121 R
Tel. + 354-590 -1200 Fax + 354 590 -1201
listasafn@reykjavik.is
www.listasafnreykjavikur.is
Press conference Friday 16th 15-18
Special Preview Friday 16th 19.00
Frost Activity, New works by Olafur Eliasson will open at Reykjavik Art Museum. The exhibition will span four halls at the museum and reflect different aspects of Eliasson’s art.
The title “Frost Activity” can on one level refer to the timing of the exhibition, when visiting the Museum can be an ‘activity’ that takes places when it is most likely to be ‘freezing’ cold in Reykjavik, Iceland. In geology the term ‘frost activity’ also refers to the way frost can split rocks, change environments, eventually move mountains and have a large impact on nature as a whole.
The metaphor of the effect of frost activity on nature vs. the effect of art on the human mind is also close at hand.
Icelandic nature has provided the artist with rich resources for many projects that he has completed abroad, and various writers on his works have noted that some kind of Nordic or even Icelandic existence unconsciously seems to permeate the vision that appears in his works.
For those who know Eliasson’s background it should come as no surprise that his work is to some extent based on his experiences of Icelandic nature. Eliasson has a very cosmopolitan outlook, born of Icelandic parents, raised and educated in Denmark, but residing in Berlin, Germany. He keeps close ties to Iceland, visiting the country each year and adding to his collection of photographic series’ based on themes from Icelandic nature.
In the exhibition catalogue Gunnar J. Arnason comments:
Eliasson shifts the focus of attention away from the artwork on to the spectator, and the way in which the spectator constructs his perceptions of the world. Perception and the activity involved in seeing and moving around spaces is the central theme that runs through this exhibition. Eliasson is concerned with manipulating the immediate environment and architecture in order to spurn us to adopt a more self reflective and critical attitude towards the various forces that influence and mould our perception and understanding of the world around us, both natural and artificial.
For further information please contact
Soffia Karlsdottir, Head of Public Relation
Tel. +354 590-1200, Fax +354 590-1201