Istanbul Modern is hosting a comprehensive selection of works from the 30-year career of the Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, whose projects have garnered worldwide acclaim.
“Olafur Eliasson: Your unexpected encounter,” the artist’s first solo exhibition in Türkiye, offers an opportunity to explore the artist’s three-decade-long practice and the themes central to it.
The comprehensive exhibition features nearly 40 works, including new productions. Curated by Öykü Özsoy Sağnak, Nilay Dursun and Ümit Mesci from the museum’s curatorial team, the exhibition focuses on water, light, color, perception, movement, geometry and the environment.
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Eliasson, who participated in the fifth International Istanbul Biennial in 1997 with his work “Beauty,” said that he is excited to return to Istanbul.
“Istanbul had a significant impact on my development as an artist almost 30 years ago. Returning to this city holds personal significance for me. I’m particularly fascinated by Istanbul’s unique location on the Bosphorus, a crucial point for maritime traffic. Themes of navigation, orientation, and the sea have been central to my art over the years, and they hold a special meaning in the new permanent work I created for Istanbul Modern and my exhibition ‘Your Unexpected Encounter.’ Visitors can take their time inside the museum, navigating through the artworks, and then shift their focus to the outside, where they can watch ships passing by the gallery on their way to destinations around the world,” Eliasson shared.
Eliasson emphasizes that his works are only complete when viewers engage with them. He considers this active participation to be an important component of his work. Through the audience’s dynamic process of discovery, the phenomena Eliasson presents – whether in varied contexts or scales – frequently result in unique experiences.
The exhibition begins with the permanent installation “Your unexpected journey,” designed by the artist specifically for Istanbul Modern’s new building. Located in the stairway, the work’s reflective circular surfaces, juxtaposed against the building’s right angles, create the possibility of continuously evolving encounters as viewers move up and down the stairs.
Eliasson’s works in the Temporary Exhibition Gallery on the second floor of the museum showcase the artist’s deep and longstanding interest in perception, color, light, and geometry, as well as his ongoing engagement with environmental topics. Although the artworks, which include installations, sculptures and photographs, are grouped thematically in the exhibition, the artist engages with multiple subjects and concepts, elucidating the relationships and permeabilities between different disciplines.
Created specifically for the exhibition, “Dusk to dawn, Bosporus,” connects viewers to the museum site, bringing the changing colors of the Bosphorus into the gallery space. The work, which includes hand-blown glass panels stacked on driftwood, combines Eliasson’s interest in the natural properties of color, light and water. It provides a preview of other color experiments that arrive later in the exhibit.
