Ólafur Elíasson

“You [must] risk getting lost in the thickets, … that is the only way to make art.” --Robert Smithson.

Julian Charrière’s (*1987) work bridges the realms of environmental science and cultural history. Marshalling performance, sculpture and photography, his projects often stem from fieldwork in remote locations with acute geophysical identities. His latest work Second Suns investigates the post-nuclear landscapes and architecture of the Bikini Atoll (Marshall Islands) and Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan). Visual content comprises four major photo series, sculptural and video works, and expedition documentation, featuring compelling images of ruined concrete bunkers, sunken battleships, apocalyptic sunsets and decaying infrastructure while contributions by leading thinkers provide historic, geographic and intellectual context. Second Suns offers readers access to notorious geographical zones shrouded in fantasy and tragedy and provides the most comprehensive visual engagement with each site published to date.

El tamaño, cuando es mensurable y sobre todo tangible, es una cualidad nítida y certera. A través del tamaño se definen implícitamente jerarquías. En sí mismo, el rango dimensional al cual pertenece una determinada entidad la califica. Lo enorme y lo minúsculo configuran universos singulares que contemplan la misma realidad desde extremos dimensionales opuestos. Los viajes hacia los límites de nuestro universo inteligible, en uno u otro sentido, resultan siempre fascinantes. Por eso Gulliver y Alicia, la miniatura y el coloso, mantienen su popularidad intacta. Pero el tamaño, aunque parezca contradictorio, puede también ser relativo. Porque una cosa es la envergadura, la magnitud real y absoluta de una realidad, y otra la dimensión con la cual esta es percibida.
La percepción del tamaño es siempre relativa porque incorpora de manera inevitable la relación con el universo espacial, formal, material en el cual está inserta. Este tamaño relativo es lo que conocemos habitualmente como “escala”. La valoración de las dimensiones en términos de escala adquiere espesor al incorporar aspectos interpretativos y de significado.
Una grieta en la pared, cuando es contemplada en términos de escala, no de tamaño, podría considerarse el Gran Cañón. Una sala podría hacerse de forma que adquiriera la inmensidad del sistema solar.
La escala depende de nuestra capacidad para ser conscientes de
las realidades de la percepción. Cuando uno se niega a liberar la escala
del tamaño, le queda a uno un objeto o un lenguaje que parece certero. Para mí [afirma Robert Smithson] la escala funciona a través de la incertidumbre. [1]
La manipulación de la escala con la cual es percibida una entidad
y la evocación consciente de dimensiones distanciadas de las reales, como recursos de proyecto, estarán siempre presentes en la concepción de “lo grande”. Porque la gran escala se define por el tamaño de una intervención que es, en la mayoría de las circunstancias, tan absoluto como relativo, tan real como evocado.

[1] Smithson, Robert: “The Spiral Jetty”, 1972, recopilado en Stiles, Kristine; Selz, Peter Howard: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artist’ Writings, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Ángeles, 1996, p. 533.

SAVIO, S.M. Interseccions between Art and Archtechture- Study of Case - Olafur
Eliasson.2015. 183 f. Dissertação (Mestrado) - Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo,
Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2015.
The reflection about the experience of space and its folding about construction
and its physical spaces, on the limit between Art and Architecture, it was the purpose
of this research. The presentation of the Danish artist work, OlafurEliassoncreating an
overview of the study of space that the Artist has been carrying out since 1990.It is
installations of Art, which seeks a sensorial space, provocation of the visitor’s sense to
produce an experience of space. Because of the theoretical basis mentioned
frequently by the Artist and its artistic and architectural references, it is necessary one
chapter of understanding the theory of Eliasson’s masterpieces. Starting from the
contact with his artworks, narrowing the theme was defined around the aspects of
light and movement on the perception of space, where it highlights the references of
the Artist on History of Modern Art- The Kinetic Movement and the Group
Light&Space. The configured-triangle between the principle figures of these three
moments- Lászlo Moholy-Nagy, James Turrell and OlafurEliasson–serves as the access
to the repertory of the Danish Artist and it justifies the research not being focused on a
series of other notorious references of Eliasson. This thesis is divided, then, in three
chapters - the Presentation, the Understanding of the Theory and the Artworks of
Eliasson–in which the relationship is established on the examples of the artworks
commented. The tangle of theoretical references found on books of Eliasson has
consequences on the miscellaneous of Chapter 2. From the concepts clarified, terms
used by the Artist, on which artwork commented. On the analysis of two expositions
that occurred on the 2000 years, Take Your Time and Weather Project, it is better
understood his vocabulary and conceptual intentions applied on physical space. The
relevance of multiple researches of OlafurEliasson, which put him on the boarder of
Art and Science includes also the philosophical knowledge and its collaborators, such
as the curator Daniel Birnbaum, and culminates on the experiment of space on the
installations, on the participation of the public.
Keywords: Contemporary Art, Architecture, Art Exhibition.

Ecologies of Landscape gathers work by nine highly accomplished artists from Canada and abroad to re-imagine our perceptual, aesthetic, and ethical relationships with our home planet. In diverse media and from a variety of cultural and geographical perspectives, these artists ponder what our connections to the Earth might be in this time of widespread concern about climate change. Especially in Canada, landscape painting has been the dominant way to approach and appreciate what we construe as ‘nature’ as well as our own identities. With increasing urgency since the 1960s, however, artists worldwide have grappled with the inadequacies of the landscape genre amidst concerns over land stewardship and the environmental degradation of our shared planet. Works in this exhibition reconceive land and landscape as presented and experienced in art.

Though much is known about historical bottegas, the studios of the Old Masters which employed select, talented artists as studio assistants under mentorship, contemporary concepts of the artist's studio have expanded immensely. As the word 'studio' gains more meaning in the contemporary art world, distinctions may become blurred or severe between this creative space and the 'artwork', which is often left to speak for itself. 'The idea', intangibility, and the 'cerebral' pervade much of the exciting discourse in contemporary art, but at times prove troublesome as they evade both the production and modes of valuation of the finished work. The objective of this paper is to illuminate the correlation between artists' exposure of their studio processes and the intrinsic and economic values (the artists' 'success') ultimately ascribed to their work. Case studies of three established artists, Olafur Eliasson, Wolfgang Beltracchi, and Jeff Koons, each with different methodologies, demonstrate a broad range of approaches in which artists open up the studio as a means to achieve individual and economic goals. Study of each artist includes analysis of the logistics of his physical studio, his creative methodology or ideologies, and definite examples of an occasion in which exposure of his studio or creative process has related to the artist's successful career in the 'art world' and market. The ability to ascribe both subjective and economic value is the foremost decisive tool in the art market, especially for emerging collectors interested in taking risks and acquiring challenging pieces. The studio thus becomes paramount; it serves as both a creative space and as a market tool for collectors and artists alike.
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Light Spaces – Spatial Models of Perception
Phenomena of Visual Space Perception in Examples from the Fine Arts and its Potential for Architecture
Architecture and art share a common interest in spatial models and the perception of space. Since the 1960s artists such as James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Maria Nordman, Nan Hoover, and Olafur Eliasson have been designing aesthetic, seemingly empty light spaces in which human perception plays an integral role in the artwork. In experimental settings they explore the relationships of humans and space with light as a medium of perception and can thus be considered basic research. Drawing connections between theoretical principles from the fields of architectural theory, art history, physics, psychology, and philosophy, the work before you illustrates the development of aesthetic spatial models in the context of Western cultural history. Select traversable, light-based spatial installations were analyzed and evaluated in terms of their potentials for architecture. These artworks are spatial atmospheres as opposed to illusory simulacra. They comprise ambiguous perceptual realities which bear ties to phenomenological philosophy. Cognizance emerges in the experience of space. This implies a redefinition of architecture when it would only first culminate in the subjective perception of the user and the design potential of the user is therefore already integrated into the architectural design process. Aesthetic light spaces are exemplary illustrations of how human perception can inform aesthetic spatial models and therewith architectural design. Hence, they are well-suited in architectural education as spatial models of perception and as a basis for experiments with space.

En  un  constante  mirar  a  la  hora  cero  del  11-S,  la  imagen  del  Apocalipsis  en  la  ciencia  ficción  contemporánea aparece teñida por la melancolía. Al reconocer en el umbral del 2001 una quiebra en el continuum de la Historia, un número significativo de películas de la ciencia ficción estadounidense actual,  desde  los  últimos  trabajos  de  Spielberg  hasta  El  incidente (The  Happening,  2008),  de  M.  Night Shyamalan, explora las diferentes tensiones con las que se puede manifestar la temporalidad con  respecto  al  patrón  elemental  del  Apocalipsis.  En  la  imagen  del  sol  negro  estas  películas  encuentran  un  nexo  común  con  la  historieta  superheroica,  con  series  televisivas  como  Perdidos(Lost,  2004-2009)  y  con  algunas  expresiones  de  la  plástica  contemporánea  como  las  del  danés  Oliafur Eliasson.

In this portfolio of compositions, I have explored the concept of musical ambiguity. I perceive this kind of ambiguity as an interesting and purposeful instability, created by employing a variety of techniques to arrange and manipulate complex compositional materials. Interrupting the narrative flow with unexpected, disturbing fragments should increase the expressive tension of the musical structure and narrative, thereby obliterating ‘habitual’ hierarchies of perception and eradicating a false sense of stability in the listener. My techniques include the simultaneous juxtaposition of several aural ‘viewpoints’, such as dense versus lucid textures, as well as the fragmentation and repositioning of chosen elements. In the analyses of my compositions I have made use of some ideas and terms from the visual arts, architecture and philosophy to clarify my arguments.
Every musical element from tonality, texture and rhythm to structure and narrative is questioned and reinterpreted by means of fragmentation and juxtaposition with the aim of creating layers of textures and timbres. Prior to this treatment, a composition is generally begun with a musical idea, derived from my mental ‘sound library’, which already alludes to timbre, instrumentation, atmosphere, modality and provides motivic impetus. Furthermore, a lively collaboration with musicians plays an important role during the compositional process and has enabled me to find my own voice through the shaping of the experimental materials into the two orchestral works, a few ensemble pieces and solo works.

Anselm Kiefer and Olafur Eliasson, even if divided by generational differences and the material of their art, they share a similar understanding of the function of the work as a narrative medium. The place where the work is exhibited, its historical value and the story it contains force us to reverse the conventionally accepted significance of the presence of contemporary art in two globally recognized, most important museums of France: Kiefer's at the Louvre and Eliasson's at Versailles. The exhibition of the works of these artists at places that represent historical, symbolic and artistic significance both for the French, as well as the whole world, allowed their narrative function to extend and thus to change the perception of the place of a contemporary art exhibition. The connection of contemporary times with history is also an attempt to open the borders defined by the traditional location of the place. Both presentations aim to show how the perception of contemporary art can be changed when it is understood as a continuation of great historical narratives. In 2007, Kiefer exhibited three works at the Louvre. The artist incorporated his works in the framework of the narrative-history, philosophy, religion, art history, tradition and modernity. In 2016, Eliasson presented sculpture-installations in the gardens and palace of Versailles, in the form of architecture and garden design works whose message is the anxiety and concern about the fate of the modern world. Just as illusory was the world in which the inhabitants of Louis XIV's Versailles lived, so is our own illusion of a world without borders, a world with endless natural resources, where our conscience is numbed by apparent actions to protect it from ecological disaster.

Rearistokratisierung, Starkult und harte Konkurrenz:
Was bleibt, wenn der autonome Künstler,
sein Werk und Ideal Geschichte sind?
- Kunstgespräch mit Wolfgang Ullrich zu den verschiedene Entwicklungen in der zeitgenössischen Kunst und verschiedenen Künstlertypen.

This short essay is part of the catalogue of the exhibition "Opéra Monde. La quête d'un art total" at Centre Pompidou-Metz (2019-2020). It proposes an overview of the operatic group show "Il Tempo del Postino" (2007), curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno, commissioned by Manchester International Festival, comprising works by artists such as Doug Aitken, Matthew Barney & Jonathan Bepler, Tacita Dean, Trisha Donnelly, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal and Rirkrit Tiravanija & Arto Lindsay. The text is written in French.

Zero was an artist group founded in Düsseldorf in 1958 by Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. The word “zero,” in Piene’s words, meant “a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for new beginnings.” In 1961 Günther Uecker joined the group. ZERO, written in capital letters, stands for the international movement, with artists from Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Italy. The movement is usually interpreted as a reaction to Abstract Expressionism by claiming that art should not have color, emotion, and individual expression. The Zero group maintained numerous international contacts with the Italian Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni, the Frenchman Yves Klein, and the Dutch artist Henk Peeters, who organized the first museum show for the international group.

The publication includes an essay by Daniel Birnbaum about ZERO TODAY, with a focus on today's generation of artists, like Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Tomas Saraceno, etc.

Anselm Kiefer and Olafur Eliasson, even if divided by generational differences and the material of their art, they share a similar understanding of the function of the work as a narrative medium. The place where the work is exhibited, its historical value and the story it contains force us to reverse the conventionally accepted significance of the presence of contemporary art in two globally recognized, most important museums of France: Kiefer's at the Louvre and Eliasson's at Versailles. The exhibition of the works of these artists at places that represent historical, symbolic and artistic significance both for the French, as well as the whole world, allowed their narrative function to extend and thus to change the perception of the place of a contemporary art exhibition. The connection of contemporary times with history is also an attempt to open the borders defined by the traditional location of the place. Both presentations aim to show how the perception of contemporary ...

Nama Olafur Eliasson muncul sebagai satu dari sekian perupa kontemporer dalam kurasi "The Contemporary Art Book" garapan Charlotte Bonham Carter dan David Hodge (2009:72). Di dalam buku ini, biografi singkat dari Olafur Eliasson berisikan cerita hidupnya. Lahir di Copenhagen, Denmark di tahun 1967, beliau sempat menempu pendidikan di Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts di Copenhagen. Dikenal sebagai seorang seniman multi-media yang memiliki ketertarikan kuat pada pembuatan instalasi-instalasi berskala besar, dengan beberapa kesempatan juga bekerja menggunakan media fotografi dan sculpting. Karya-karya dari Eliasson membentuk gabungan-gabungan dari sains, seni, dan aspek alam. Keseluruhan unsur tadi direalisasikannya dalam aplikasi elemen-elemen seperti permainan cahaya, temperatur, tekanan udara, dan lain sebagainya. Eliasson menjadikan tendensi kekaryaannya ini sebagai aktualisasi diri dalam perupa karya multi-sensory dengan skala yang kebanyakan memang selalu begitu megah.

Over a short period, global consciousness about the severity of the threat to human civilisation posed by climate change appears to have shifted in an abrupt, if precarious, fashion. 
For the thousands gathered to protest in Paris at the COP21 in December 2015 and the hundreds of thousands more supportive of their efforts, the tipping point had been reached, the science was clear and it was time for politicians to take action.
With imagination and narrative so central to the moment, and artists so present in the popular movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, it is unsurprising that the Paris conference saw the largest mobilization yet of artists involved in commenting upon, lobbying, fundraising and protesting around the issue of climate change, or that the contributions by contemporary artists at COP21 took a wide variety of forms and adopted a range of visual and conceptual strategies. This article explores these contributions and strategies and reflects on their significance.

Erica H. Adams: Pages 4-9 (Dutch + English) in 3/2010 issue of Fjoezzz quarterly
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's transformative experience of light (and dark) references culture through installations and, recently, architecture.
Eliasson playfully disrupts our expectations of space and time. By keeping the construction of his illusions in plain view, a spectacle dependent society can not simply focus on imagery .
Works/shows discussed:
_Innen Stadt Außen/Inner City Out (2010) at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin;
_The Blind Pavilion on island in River Havel (2010);
_The 50th Venice Biennale (2003) premiere of The Blind Pavillion + La Situazione Antispettiva;
Notion Motion(2005)at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen,the Netherlands (2010);
_Viewing Machine(01-08) Inhotim Cultural Institute, Brazil;
_Your Rainbow Panorama (2010) a 360o panorama from the roof of ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark.
_ Glass Façade (2011) collaboration with Henning Larden Architects on southern façade of Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre, Reykjavík, Iceland.

Throughout this text an exploration into an artist's ironic methodology, a term coined resultant of research, will become evidenced through the evaluating of artist-self-proclaimed descriptive biographies and press releases. Scrutinising further an exhibition, unveiling an evident display of failure regarding interactivity, inclusivity, spatiality and accessibility. The dichotomy of press released documents regarding exhibition events and gallery experience along with primary research will be the crux of this essay. A prestigious contemporary artist known for his immersive installations had one of his largest

An Invitation to Disappear is a filmic expedition into the heart of a lush dystopian landscape symptomatic of the current global derangement of ecological thinking. Borrowing its title from the Tambora volcano on Sumbawa Indonesia, the film is set in an oil palm plantation at an unmarked location, a nowhere/anywhere in Indonesia or Malaysia-where almost 90 percent of the world's palm oil is now produced. The film stages a disturbing confrontation with the conflicting promises of two global monocultures: rave culture and industrial agriculture. Field Philosophy is an extended essay recounting a collaboration between a philosopher and artist as they traversed multiple historical and contemporary sites of environmental catastrophe. In English and French.

BEOBACHTUNG
MALTE BARTSCH / JULIAN CHARRIÈRE / ANDREAS GREINER / CLARA JO / FELIX KIESSLING / SOPHIA POMPÉRY / MACARENA RUIZ-TAGLE / NINA SCHUIKI / DAN STOCKHOLM / MATTHIAS SOHR / ALVARO URBANO / JONAS WENDELIN / JULIUS VON BISMARCK
EXHIBITION: DEC 16, 2018 – FEB 10, 2017
OPENING: FRIDAY, DEC 15, 6–8 PM
DITTRICH & SCHLECHTRIEM are pleased to present BEOBACHTUNG // OBSERVATION. The group exhibition reflects on the notion of observation from an influential group of young artists who participated in the INSTITUT FÜR RAUMEXPERIMENTE led by Olafur Eliasson from 2009 to 2014.

Dedicated to an articulation of the earth from broadly ecological perspectives, eco art is a vibrant subset of contemporary art that addresses the widespread public concern with rapid climate change and related environmental issues. In Landscape into Eco Art, Mark Cheetham systematically examines connections and divergences between contemporary eco art, land art of the 1960s and 1970s, and the historical genre of landscape painting.
Through eight thematic case studies that illuminate what eco art means in practice, reception, and history, Cheetham places the form in a longer and broader art-historical context. He considers a wide range of media—from painting, sculpture, and photography to artists’ films, video, sound work, animation, and installation—and analyzes the work of internationally prominent artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Nancy Holt, Mark Dion, and Robert Smithson. In doing so, Cheetham reveals eco art to be a dynamic extension of a long tradition of landscape depiction in the West that boldly enters into today’s debates on climate science, government policy, and our collective and individual responsibility to the planet.

An ambitious intervention into eco-criticism and the environmental humanities, this volume provides original ways to understand the issues and practices of eco art in the Anthropocene. Art historians, humanities scholars, and lay readers interested in contemporary art and the environment will find Cheetham’s work valuable and invigorating.

This article asks how different temporalities affect human experience in the museum. What is the relationship between the time of the image and the time of the spectator? How does real-time technologies affect this relationship? How can art works and exhibitions render human technogenesis or the co-evolution of the human and the non-human tangible? Several art works (Andy Warhol, Bill Viola, Olafur Eliasson, Tobias Rehberger, Douglas Gordon) and exhibitions are explored.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""Der Experimentierende (allgemeiner: der Forschung praktizierende) – in Kunst und Wissenschaft – setzt sich willentlich einer Fremderfahrung aus. Er konfrontiert sich z.B. mit dem eigenen Nicht-Verstehen, der Möglichkeit des Scheiterns, und mit vielem mehr. Für diesen eigentümlichen Willensakt des »Sich / Etwas / Aussetzens« bedarf es einer besonderen Motivation, die notwendig mit einer Selbstrelativierung verbunden ist.  In Bezug auf eine anthropologische Studie von Ernst Tugendhat soll diesen Zusammenhängen nachgegangen werden. Mit Mitteln der analytischen Sprachphilosophie werden durch eine Analyse der Struktur der propositionalen Sprache Phänomene wie das »ich«-Sagen, Egozentrizität, die Fähigkeit zur situationsunabhängigen Handlungsausrichtung, Selbstaktivierung, der Zusammenhang von Vernunft und Emotionen, u.v.m., verständlich gemacht. Ergebnis ist u.a., das Phänomen der Selbstrelativierung in zahlreichen Facetten beschreiben zu können. So wäre die Tugend der »intellektuellen Redlichkeit« erklärbar, die in einem weit verstandenen Sinn sowohl dem (forschenden) Wissenschaftler, als auch dem (experimentierenden) Künstler zukommt. In einer radikalen Form, besonders in der Kunst, kann das »Zurücktreten von Sich« Formen annehmen, die strukturgleich sind mit Praktiken des »Zurücktretens vom eigenen Wollen«, wie sie etwa im Zen-Buddhismus zu beobachten sind. Diese Praxis ist von grundsätzlich anderer Art als die Theoriestrukturen der meisten Religionen, die auf dogmatischer Schriftgläubigkeit aufbauen, mit allen damit verbundenen Problemen wie religiös motiviertem Fundamentalismus oder institutionalisierter Machtausübung mit den damit verbundenen Möglichkeiten zum Machtmissbrauch. Wiederum mit den Mitteln der Sprachphilosophie lässt sich zeigen, dass prinzipiell jeder Mensch, der eine propositionale Sprache spricht, grundlegende Bedürfnisse entwickelt, »von sich Zurückzutreten«, notwendig etwa in einer »schwachen« Form, um sein »Wollen« situationsunabhängig auf Zwecke auszurichten. In einer radikalen Weise dagegen (und im Zusammenhang mit dem Referieren-Können auf Zukünftiges) entsteht das Bedürfnis nach Selbstrelativierung insbesondere im Bewusstsein der eigenen Sterblichkeit. So bietet sich das Experimentieren als eine Möglichkeit an, als Mensch im »post-säkularen« Zeitalter jenseits religiösem Dogmatismus oder modischer Esoterik in einer systematischen und praktischen Weise eine spirituelle Praxis auszuüben, ohne den Anspruch der Vernunft aufgeben zu müssen. Experimentieren und mystische Praxis kultivieren dabei ein spezifisches, emotional-kognitives Vermögen, auf die Wirklichkeit aufmerken zu können: das Vermögen zum Staunen (von Platon und Aristoteles bekanntlich wiederum als Ausgangspunkt des Philosophierens begriffen). Die Praxis des Experimentierens ist grundlegend an den Gebrauch von nicht-sprachlichen Symbolsystemen gebunden. Im begriffstechnischen Sinn, an die Referenz durch »Exemplifikation« (Goodman), oder schlicht, an die Praxis des Mustergebrauchs. Diese Art nicht-sprachlicher Selbst- und Weltverständigung kann in Bezug auf Nelson Goodman differenziert analysiert werden. Dem Beitrag liegt u.a. das methodologische Anliegen zugrunde, die Einsichten der Sprachphilosophie, ausgehend vom »linguistic turn«, an die Untersuchungen der »post-analytischen« Philosophie, insbesondere in Bezug auf die Arbeiten von Nelson Goodman, anzubinden. Besprochen werden die Arbeitsweisen von Künstlern wie John Cage, Gerhard Richter, Bruce Nauman, oder Olafur Eliasson.


Literatur:

Goodman, Nelson (1997):
Sprachen der Kunst. Entwurf einer Symboltheorie.
Frankfurt am Main [Suhrkamp] (1976)

Tugendhat, Ernst (2003):
Egozentrizität und Mystik.
München [Beck]

""

This paper addresses two artists who work with rivers to raise awareness about ecological issues and one artist who deals with soil contaminated with heavy metals. In Britain (and many other industrial nations) these two issues are connected. As climate change causes more severe flooding, consequently contaminants are spread from riverbeds onto adjacent fields (potentially polluting our crops and meat). The paper identifies how these artists create simple aesthetic gestures that create an imprint on observers' memories in ways that scientists and climate activists do not. These include: lobbying, making demands, campaigning and taking to the streets (without asking permission).

How much sun is needed to maintain or improve psychic and physical health? What are the repercussions of ripples in global energy markets on local labor politics? To what extent is the distribution of wealth related to the distribution of light? Questions of this order are placed in the folds of the narrative and the imagery of Dardenne’s film, and they keep haunting the western-style tale of the heroine searching for a reason among her coworkers and within herself to stay alive in the desert of the solar-industrial real.

This article examines the role that the London 2012 Festival played in constructing and contesting the 2012 Olympic spectacle by considering two projects proposed by Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson: Take a deep breath and Olafur Eliasson: Little Sun. I propose that the former, which failed to gain funding and never made it onto the Festival line-up, would have produced a ‘counter-spectacle’ to the Olympic spectacle, should it have come to fruition. I contend that the latter, produced at London’s Tate Modern, provided an ‘anti-spectacle’ to the Olympic spectacle. The article considers what the respective ‘failure’ and ‘success’ of these projects begins to unveil about current developments in art, performance and global spectacle. I argue that while both projects aimed to challenge and diffuse the state-centrism of the Olympic Games, they are also indicative of the London 2012 Festival’s legitimisation of spectacle, rather than its contestation.