Olafur Eliasson: BAROQUE BAROQUE
John Hill
19. November 2015
New Berlin Sphere, 2009 Colored glass (cyan, magenta, yellow), aluminum, paint (black, white) Installation view: “Innen Stadt Außen,” Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2009 (Photo: Jens Ziehe, Courtesy of Studio Olafur Eliasson, 2009)
BAROQUE BAROQUE is a new exhibition in Vienna that brings together a selection of Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson's artworks from private collections and places them into the baroque spaces of the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Not many artworks could hold their own within the saturated opulence of the Belvedere's Winter Palace, but Eliasson's multi-faceted sculptures engage the rooms and surfaces in ways that invite reflection on the relationship between art and container. These are not merely objects in space. Through light, reflection and other means, the baroque rooms become an active participant in the display of the art and the visitor's experience. Or as exhibition hosts Belvedere and Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) put it in a statement:
Culled from the collections of TBA21 in Vienna and Juan and Patricia Vergez in Buenos Aires, BAROQUE BAROQUE is on display at the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy in Vienna from 21 November 2015 until 6 March 2016.Surprising affinities between Eliasson’s works and their temporary settings become evident as the juxtapositions explore the relationships between object and viewer, representation and experience, actual and virtual, giving rise to a concept of the baroque superimposed on itself — the BAROQUE BAROQUE.
Eye see you, 2006 Stainless steel, aluminium, colour-effect filter glass, and bulb (Photo: Studio Olafur Eliasson)
Fivefold tunnel, 2000 Stainless steel 222 x 126 x 1055 cm ThyssenBornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Vienna
Kaleidoscope, 2001 Aluminum, aluminum mirrors, foamcore, gaffer tape 180 x 180 x 728 cm The Juan & Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires
