Olafur Eliasson: Take Your Time

Widely heralded as one of the most important artists of his generation, Olafur Eliasson nimbly merges art, science, and natural phenomena to create extraordinary multisensory experiences.

Challenging the passive nature of traditional art-viewing, Eliasson engages the observer as an active participant, using tangible elements such as temperature, moisture, and light to generate physical sensations. The works assembled for this presentation--the first U.S. survey of this Icelandic artist's oeuvre--date from 1993 to the present and reflect all facets of his creative practice. Encompassing sculpture, photography, and large-scale immersive installations--including a newly commissioned kaleidoscopic tunnel that envelops the Museum's steel truss bridge--these projects are intentionally simple in construction but thrilling to behold, sparking profound, visceral reactions designed to heighten one's experience of the everyday.

Eliasson describes his artworks as "devices for the experience of reality." As visitors interact with the pieces, they become conscious of their own cognition. The artist describes the effect as "seeing yourself seeing"--an idea key to all his work.

Organized by Madeleine Grynsztejn, Elise S. Haas Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA, in close collaboration with the artist, Take your time: Olafur Eliasson is accompanied by an extensive catalogue, featuring essays by Mieke Bal, Klaus Biesenbach and Roxana Marcoci, Daniel Birnbaum, Madeleine Grynsztejn, Pamela M. Lee, and Henry Urbach, as well as a conversation between Eliasson and artist Robert Irwin. The exhibition will embark on an international tour following its San Francisco debut.

Also opening: Your tempo: Olafur Eliasson September 8, 2007- January 13, 2008 Presented in conjunction with Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, this special exhibition marks the first public and sole U.S. presentation of Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project, a new work by Eliasson created as part of BMW's long-running art car program. Shrouding BMW’s hydrogen-powered H2R race car in a new skin of steel mesh, mirror-coated stainless steel, and many layers of ice, Eliasson transforms an object of industrial design into a work of art that critically and poetically reflects on the relationship between global warming and the automotive industry. Organized by Henry Urbach, SFMOMA's Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design, this independent yet complementary exhibition will resonate with the survey, refracting its overarching themes through a single project.

Olafur Eliasson: Take Your Time

Stationen:
08.09.07 - 03.02.08 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
20.04.08 - 30.06.08 Museum of Modern Art, New York
20.04.08 - 30.06.08 P.S.1 MoMA
09.11.08 - 15.03.09 Dallas Museum of Art
01.05.09 - 13.09.09 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
10.12.09 - 11.04.10 Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney