"Nothingness is not nothing at all"
OLAFUR ELIASSON
presented by the gallery :
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery521 West 21st Street New York, NY 10011  Tel. +1 212 414 4144 e-mail: |
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Long MuseumLane 3398, Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai
Tel: 8621-68778787*8000 Fax: 8621-68776806 e-mail: |
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March 20 > June 19, 2016
 The open pyramid, 2016. Installation view: Long Museum, Shanghai. Photo: Anders Sune Berg |
 Your disappearing garden, 2011 |
 Seeing plants, 2003 |
Nothingness is nothing at all is Olafur Eliasson's first survey exhibition in a Chinese museum. Opening to the public on 20 March 2016, this career-spanning exhibition brings together artworks from the artist’s vast oeuvre, which extends from the early 1990s to the present and includes installations, sculptures, paintings, drawings, and film. A number of new artworks were conceived especially for the Long Museum exhibition, including the large-scale, site-specific installation The open pyramid (2016).
Through a diverse array of artworks, many of which suggest tools for experimental research, the exhibition invites visitors into a space of exploration that encourages their active engagement. The artworks were selected and arranged with particular attention to how they interact with the vaulted, austere concrete museum building designed by Atelier Deshaus. Inspired by the architecture’s combination of rectangular rooms and curved ceilings, Eliasson chose artworks for the exhibition that use basic geometrical principles such as circles, spheres, cubes, or pyramids. Pavilion-like structures create discrete stations within the building, and the capacious interior is divided into individual spaces through precisely curated constellations of artworks.
Many of the works include elemental materials such as stone, ice, water, or light. Series of photographs and color paintings reflect Eliasson’s approach to studying the phenomenon of color perception and investigating the world. Optical devices, lenses, mirrors, and glass spheres emphasize the dynamism and subjectivity of visual perception, providing opportunities for visitors to consider their own participation in the construction of what they see. The works direct the viewers’ attention towards the space they inhabit as well as to the act of perceiving it, highlighting their active role in the discovery and co-creation of their surroundings and the world.
Through a diverse array of artworks, many of which suggest tools for experimental research, the exhibition invites visitors into a space of exploration that encourages their active engagement. The artworks were selected and arranged with particular attention to how they interact with the vaulted, austere concrete museum building designed by Atelier Deshaus. Inspired by the architecture’s combination of rectangular rooms and curved ceilings, Eliasson chose artworks for the exhibition that use basic geometrical principles such as circles, spheres, cubes, or pyramids. Pavilion-like structures create discrete stations within the building, and the capacious interior is divided into individual spaces through precisely curated constellations of artworks.
Many of the works include elemental materials such as stone, ice, water, or light. Series of photographs and color paintings reflect Eliasson’s approach to studying the phenomenon of color perception and investigating the world. Optical devices, lenses, mirrors, and glass spheres emphasize the dynamism and subjectivity of visual perception, providing opportunities for visitors to consider their own participation in the construction of what they see. The works direct the viewers’ attention towards the space they inhabit as well as to the act of perceiving it, highlighting their active role in the discovery and co-creation of their surroundings and the world.
