Olafur Eliasson: Become Your Own Navigator | Art21 "Extended Play"

[Olafur Eliasson: Become Your Own Navigator]

Sometimes, art is capable of verbalizing,
on your behalf,

a feeling that you might carry with you.

It could also be a traumatic thing,

or a positive memory.

Everyone sees something different
because the artwork hosts

whatever subjective matter
you bring to the artwork.

I recognize that this is not always the case.

Some people might feel
that the art world is elitist

and not very good at listening,

and that's a very valid argument as well.

The great strength of not just art,
but culture,

is this ability to be inclusive

and to essentially reflect
people's emotional need.

I didn't really intend it,
but this is a very circular show.

The title of the show is
"The listening dimension."

It's constructed realities,

playing with the idea of an optical illusion.

If you are uncertain,

you are always
welcome to look behind.

The abstraction allows for you
to find out for yourself.

I find that very generous

and also very trust generating.

[BIRDS CHIRPING]

When I was in art school,

I discovered the so-called
Light and Space Movement

out of California.

["Second Meeting" (1989), James Turrell]

It was James Turrell and Robert Irwin--

people who introduced a set of
spacial experiments

which were very much focused on
reconsidering the role of the viewer

or the person engaged in art.

[Studio Olafur Eliasson, Berlin, Germany]

For me that had to do with trust--

that I was given the opportunity to
actually have some responsibility.

Somebody telling you, "I trust you,"

"you can look at this,
do something with it,"

"and make something that
makes sense to you,"

that's actually one of the
great things about art.

--It's time,

--and then it's light, right?

--You know, twelve months.

--And there is this...

My father was a painter.

He would travel into the mountains
and I would tuck along.

While he was making art
I would just climb and hug around,

and make small dams in the rivers.

That gave me a relatively relaxed,
but also very tangible, relationship with

what type of environment
the Icelandic landscape offered.

The Icelandic landscape has no trees,

no cars, no cows.

So it's kind of like looking like the moon.

You wonder,

"Am I looking at a space
which is one hour, one day, or one week deep?"

Once you start walking, you realize,
"that stone is actually not so far away."

It encourages you to
become your own navigator.

If you are active,
it will change.

If you're passive,
it will be out of reach.

Everybody has a relationship
with natural phenomena.

You don't have to be a professional
to have an opinion about a rainbow.

I've been quite busy in my artworks,

saying, "Well, it's not about me
growing up in nature."

"It's really about you
and what you can make of it."

It's great to be in a situation
where you feel that, on a deep level,

the surroundings reflect your emotional need,

because then you say,
"I am needed."