Titled ‘Your curious journey’, the exhibition brings 17 key works that encapsulate the themes and environmental concerns explored throughout Eliasson’s three-decade-long practice.
Singapore Art Museum (SAM) proudly announces the opening of the highly anticipated exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey, the first major solo exhibition in Southeast Asia dedicated to the work of internationally celebrated Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Featuring 17 artworks that employ diverse media to reflect the expanse of Eliasson’s wide-ranging oeuvre, the exhibition will touch on major themes of his three-decade-long practice — embodiment, experience, perception, as well as the urgency of climate action and more-than-human perspectives. Included in this stellar line-up are also never-before-seen works and Singapore-exclusive installations only available at this leg of the travelling show, as Your curious journey moves on to four other venues in the Asia-Pacific after making its debut at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark from 10 May to 22 September 2024.
Internationally renowned for his wide-ranging, genre-crossing works, Eliasson has exhibited his works in major museums and public spaces around the globe since 1997. Eliasson is known for his captivating installations that make the ungraspable tangible — heightening our awareness of our senses and playfully challenging our experience and perception of the world around us. Beyond that, Eliasson’s work continues to find meaningful resonance with contemporary audiences through his deep engagement with society and the environment.
Eugene Tan, CEO and Director of SAM says, “SAM seeks to inspire change through art and cultivate spaces for collaborative dialogues to occur, and is delighted to bring the works of visionary artist Olafur Eliasson to Southeast Asia for the first time, at such a scale. Taking over the museum’s galleries at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, audiences familiar with Eliasson’s iconic works can anticipate a broad range of works that unpack his unique aesthetic and the major themes that underscore his practice over the past 30 years. We also look forward to connecting new audiences to Eliasson’s work in Your curious journey, where they can immerse themselves in Eliasson’s interactive installations and discover the varied perspectives that contemporary art can bring to some of today’s most pressing social and environmental issues. Along with our partners Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Museum MACAN, and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, we are excited to see how the global story of Your curious journey unfolds as it travels across Asia-Pacific.”
Three decades of playful exploration under one roof
From the moment they step into Level 1 of SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, visitors will be immediately greeted by Yellow corridor (1997). A row of mono-frequency yellow lights illuminates the passageway of Galleries 1 and 2, inviting an uncanny somatic experience of the space where one’s visual spectrum of colours is desaturated and washed in shades of grey. Notably, the work represents Eliasson’s interest in co-creation with his audiences, where their unique first-person perspective completes the experience of the work. Beauty (1993), one of his most iconic works on display, epitomises Eliasson’s interest in challenging our awareness of our perception, as well as emphasising our unique, subjective experiences. In the work, a fine sheet of mist is illuminated by a singular spotlight in a darkened space, and when viewed at just the right angle, a prismatic reflection of light reveals itself as a luminous rainbow. As light is refracted and reflected on the water droplets differently, no two viewers see the same rainbow. Bringing into focus the role of the viewer and the very act of perception and experience of seeing, the work begs the question: Does the rainbow exist independently, or does it exist because we perceive it?
The spirit of co-creation with audiences and creating communal experiences is also prevalent in The cubic structural evolution project (2004). One of two Singapore-only exclusives, the work invites active participation in the envisioning and transformation of a Lego cityscape and is only made complete with the audience’s spirited engagement. Comprising heaps of white Lego bricks amongst imaginative complexes, Eliasson creates space for play and creativity, encouraging visitors to build shared worlds with others.
The exhibition also explores Eliasson’s use of ephemeral and intangible materials such as light, wind, fog and water to conjure evanescent phenomena, allowing visitors to experience invisible elements of our surroundings palpably. In Symbiotic seeing (2020), the other Singapore-exclusive work, coloured laser lights come into contact with periodically released fog to create a captivating marvel that appears to occupy a liminal space between physical states. As ripples and currents of fog swirl above our heads, flowing along with our movements within the space, we become directly involved in the production of our surroundings, personally and communally. Similarly, in Object defined by activity (then) (2009), strobe lights flicker ceaselessly in rapid succession, illuminating a water feature in a pitch-dark space for a mere fraction of a second at a time, creating the illusion of water being frozen in time in a series of still, fleeting frames.
Many artworks displayed in the exhibition also reflect Eliasson’s deep engagement with the places and ecological systems in which we exist. Drawing from his connection with Iceland, Moss wall (1994) sees reindeer cup lichen (Cladonia rangiferina) woven into a wire mesh that blankets an entire gallery wall. Also known colloquially as “reindeer moss,” it covers immense areas in northern tundra and taiga ecosystems. The living and breathing wall disrupts an otherwise homogeneous museum space, collapsing the boundaries between interior and exterior by bringing one of nature’s great wonders directly to audiences in tropical Singapore.
Through two brand new, never-before-seen works The last seven days of glacial ice (2024) and The seismographic testimony of distance (Berlin–Singapore, no. 1 to no. 6) (2024), Eliasson also prompts visitors to reflect on pertinent environmental concerns and the ongoing climate catastrophe. In The last seven days of glacial ice (2024), a fragment of ice from a nearby glacier at Diamond Beach in the south of Iceland was visualised in its various stages of melting. A bronze cast representing each stage is paired with a clear orb of glass — a volumetric representation of water that was lost — conjuring an evocative image of its steady degradation and loss that stresses the urgency of climate action.
At the core of Your curious journey is The seismographic testimony of distance
(Berlin–Singapore, no. 1 to no. 6) — a series of unique seismographic sketches created by
Eliasson’s drawing machines installed in the shipping crates that carried most of the artworks shown in this exhibition, tracing their journey from Berlin to Singapore by sea instead of air. The work thus not only necessitates sea travel but also demonstrates a mindfulness of the exhibition’s carbon footprint in both his content and process of creating his artworks and exhibitions.
The seismographic testimony of distance will continue to develop as the exhibition travels over a three-year timeframe and unite each distinct iteration of the exhibition as part of a larger, global story. Following its first stop in Singapore at SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the exhibition will travel to Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, New Zealand (Dec 2024 – Mar 2025); Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (May – Aug 2025); Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia (Nov 2025 – Apr 2026); and Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila, the Philippines (Jun – Oct 2026).
For the exhibition in Singapore, SAM will be publishing an exhibition catalogue for Olafur
Eliasson: Your curious journey, featuring full-colour documentation of the artworks, including large-scale installations and sculptures. The catalogue is complemented by a curatorial essay and newly commissioned texts, a conversation with the artist, as well as itinerant marginalia that illustrates the entanglements between his practice and artistic approaches. More information on the publication can be accessed via bit.ly/SAM-OlafurEliasson.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of public programmes, starting with a curator tour on 11 May 2024, from 3 pm to 4 pm, where SAM curators Joella Kiu and Angelica Ong will share insights on selected artworks. As June approaches, SAM invites visitors to mark their calendars for two editions of SAMily Funday, taking place on 1 June and 15 June 2024. These family-friendly events will feature an array of exciting activities, including the interactive “Our Curious Lego City” drop-in activity. Attendees are encouraged to participate in building their dream Singapore cityscape using Lego bricks in The cubic structural evolution project (2004). Capture the joy of SAMily Funday at the special Instagram photo booth and partake in tours and talks designed to enrich experiences and deepen understanding of the exhibition. Visitors will also have the opportunity to purchase products from the artist’s social business, Little Sun, including the iconic Little Sun Original lamp and the “Holding hands with the sun” tote bags. Additionally, artistically crafted umbrellas and postcard kits are available for sale through the Vending Machine located at Level 1 of SAM for those seeking exclusive mementoes.
For added convenience, complimentary shuttle bus services are available, operating between Harbourfront MRT Station Exit D and SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark on weekends and public holidays. For the shuttle bus schedule, please visit our website.
Olafur Eliasson: Your curious journey runs from 10 May to 22 September 2024 at SAM at
Tanjong Pagar Distripark. Exhibition tickets are available at $20 ($15 for Singapore Residents and Permanent Residents). Admission is free for local and locally-based students and teachers. More information on the exhibition is available at https://bit.ly/SAM-OlafurEliasson.
