Museum Boijmans acquires top piece by Olafur Eliasson
Museum Boijmans
Olafur Eliasson, ‘Notion Motion‘ Thanks to the support of the H & F patronage, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is acquiring the work Notion Motion by Olafur Eliasson. The patronage has bought the work and given it to the museum. This is the first time that a Dutch art institution acquires a work by Eliasson. The internationally celebrated artist has realized this installation especially for the three largest galleries of the museum. The presentation can be seen until January 8, 2006.
In doing this, the H &F patronage sets the tone for its collaboration with the museum. The aim of the patronage, which is directed by the collector Han Nefkens, is to make contemporary, innovative visual art accessible. This new foundation enlarges the possibilities for working with contemporary art on an international level. Collaboration is central to this patronage, with the artist as well as with the institutions that are involved in the presentation of the work. The patronage has earlier been involved in the exhibition Water and Works by Lucy and Jorge Orta, and the Thomas Rentmeister presentation.
A fitting acquisition Notion Motion is an excellent addition to the museums collection of modern and contemporary art. Thus, this purchase fits in with a series of illustrious acquisitions by the museum, works that were made especially for the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningens space, and that now belong to the icons of the collection. The floor work by Walter de Maria is an example of this, as are Serras Waxing Arcs and the recent acquisition Celula Nave by Ernesto Neto. Notion Motion takes its place effortlessly among these illustrious predecessors. In terms of content, the acquisition of Notion Motion also connects to a number of lines in the collection. The aforementioned Waxing Arcs by Serra, but also for instance the Double Steel Cage Piece by Nauman and works by artists such as Dan Graham, Larry Bell and Ernesto Neto are aimed at the perception of space.
Light and water Notion Motion is an installation in which the visualization of light waves takes central place. The monumental work, which is largely built up out of water and light, consists of three installations with a collective size of 1500 square meters. With simple components, Eliasson has created a fantastic work in which he immerses the viewer in an overwhelming visual world, which at the same time is also quite simple and minimal. All this is made visible by a changing interaction of light and water. The interplay with the visitor also forms an important part of the work. The work will be shown at the museum every five years.
International renown
Olafur Eliasson (1967) grew up in Copenhagen, and has, during the past ten years, built up an oeuvre consisting of rainbows, sunsets, waterfalls, scent walls, fog, shafts of light and periscopes. He is regarded as one of the most important artists of his generation. Since his first serious exhibitions in 1995 at, among others, the Venice Biennale, the Malmö Art Museum, Neugerriemschneider and Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo Turin, many exhibitions followed at the most prominent art museums of the world, and there has been almost no Biennale at which his work was absent.
The acquisition Notion Motion also affirms the relationship between Eliasson and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. In 1996, at the start of his career, Eliasson participated in the first Rotterdam Manifesta, and placed a small synthetic igloo in the museum garden. In the spring of 2003, on the occasion of the museums reopening, Eliasson erected a large scent wall opposite the entrance. Eliassons work navigates between natural phenomena and technology. It makes the viewer conscious of his perceptions, rendering them tangible as it were. Eliassons installations also refer to age-old themes in art history, such as the sublime, beauty and the visionary. He lives and works in Berlin and Copenhagen.
With kind support of:
Mondriaan Foundation
The Danish Arts Council’s Committee for International Visual Art
