Quite a few countries all over the world organise light festivals that illuminate the long dark winter nights. But, if you're a light enthusiast with a passion for art, you should definitely check out the Olafur Eliasson exhibition entitled "Baroque Baroque" conceived by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21) founder Francesca von Habsburg in collaboration with Agnes Husslein, and currently on in a very special place, the Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, in Vienna.
The event features work by this Danish-Icelandic artist from TBA21 and Juan & Patricia Vergez's private collections. The most interesting thing about this event is the way these pieces are integrated within the grand baroque setting of the Belvedere's Winter Palace. The latter is the former city residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), an important site of artistic and scientific patronage in baroque Vienna, and one of the most magnificent baroque edifices in the city.
With the opening of the Belvedere's fourth museum, Prince Eugene of Savoy's most important rooms in his state apartment became accessible to the public and curators are now attempting an interesting experiment in these spaces that consists in creating a dialogue between cultural heritage and contemporary art. "Baroque Baroque" is therefore conceived as an encounter, a parallel between two different epochs and between the baroque cultural heritage of Vienna and the work of a modern artist.
Though the Baroque was a period of great turmoil and excesses, it also saw revolutionary optical and scientific discoveries as well as a blossoming of interest in the phantasmagoric and the occult. Apart from being interested in architecture, design, and art, Prince Eugene was a man of vision with a passion for the sciences, including mineralogy and astronomy. Eliasson is interested in the natural sciences, psychology, and philosophy, and his works often make use of motion, projections, shadows, and reflections, relating to notions of transformation and artifice inherent in the concept of the baroque.
At times Eliasson's pieces turn into sources of light that contribute to give a magic quality to the baroque architectures surrounding them; at others his discrete interventions or large scale installations are used to create striking contrasts or to modify the perceptions of viewers prompting them to explore and reconsider the relationships between them, the surrounding spaces and the art objects on display.
"I find it inspiring that the baroque exhibited such confidence in the fluidity of the boundaries between models of reality and, simply, reality," the artist stated in a press release. "The presentation of my works at the Winter Palace is based on trust in the possibility of constructing reality according to our shared dreams and desires and faith in the idea that constructions and models are as real as anything."
In the entrance the light from a powerful HMI projector passes through a wave effect machine furnished with a yellow and blue colour filter and onto a convex mirror which reflects the shimmering, coloured light across the Winter Palace's Vestibule, creating "Die organische und kristalline Beschreibung", an installation generating a sense of confusion in the viewer, destabilizing the act of perception.
In the Gold Cabinet, "Eye See You", a "solar cooker" – a prefabricated mirror-polished bowl that uses the rays of the sun to cook in hot climates – is mounted on a tripod, with a sodium lamp attached at its centre emitting bright yellow monofrequency light. This particular installation proves that the baroque opulence of the Winter Palace goes pretty well with Eliasson's works.
The artist's ongoing investigations of colour, perception, transformation, and deconstruction are tackled via several optical machines such as "Kaleidoscope" (an installation that shows how our perceptions can be disorganised and reconfigured), "Your Welcome Reflected" (a sort of mobile structure creating a playfully powerful projection of colours along the gallery walls that meet, coincide and overlap, generating a seemingly endless number of combinations), and "Seu planeta compartilhado" (Your shared planet; four individually shaped and coloured kaleidoscopes, resting on a unified metallic frame and exploring the themes of the co-dependency of perception, space, and universe).
Structure-wise, "New Berlin Sphere" and "Fivefold Tunnel" remain among the most interesting constructions. The former is a fascinating object made by combining two sets of twenty spirals, and two series of rhomboid stainless steel panels with panels of coloured glass in magenta, cyan, and yellow; the latter is a freestanding arched passageway that connects two ceremonial rooms and is composed of intersecting sets of parallel steel bars spaced according to the golden ratio and generating a complex aperiodic pattern (the use of fivefold symmetry in this work stems from the artist's close collaboration with Icelandic mathematician and architect Einar Thorsteinn).
The new commission "Wishes Versus Wonders" (2015), a steel half-ring mounted to the mirror wall in the Hall of Battle Paintings, hovers over the parquet floor staging an encounter between reality, illusion, and the elaborate artifice of the surroundings, simultaneously multiplying lines of potentiality. One particular installation entitled "Your uncertain shadow" and featuring halogen lamps with variously coloured bulbs on the floor and a white projection screen will prove particularly interesting with visitors who love interactive installations. Visitors are indeed invited to play with their own reflections and become the protagonists of this installation, walking across the room and projecting their moving shadows in a combination of flickering colours and illusionary wave patterns.
The works on display in "Baroque Baroque" call into question our received habits of seeing and experiencing space, and represent a call to the visitors to explore the thin line between material and immaterial. "We hope the viewer will be able to let go of himself by transforming his way to see reality, opening up new worlds of sensations and perceptions," stated collector Patricia Vergez in the official press release. "We also hope that people during this exhibition will enjoy challenging their limits of imagination."
"Olafur Eliasson: Baroque Baroque", Belvedere's Winter Palace, Vienna, Austria, until March 6, 2016.
Image credits for this post
Olafur Eliasson
Yellow Corridor, 1997
The Juan & Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires
Olafur Eliasson
Eye see you, 2006
Stainless steel, aluminium, color-effect filter glass, and bulb
230 x 120 x 110 cm
Commissioned by Louis Vuitton Malletier
Olafur Eliasson
Die organische und kristalline Beschreibung, 1996
Projector, wave effect machine, color filter foil, convex mirrorr
Dimensions variable
Olafur Eliasson
Seu planeta compartilhado , 2011
Stainless steel, aluminum, color-effect filter glass, mirrors
Kaleidoscope, 2001
Aluminum, aluminum mirrors, foamcore, gaffer tape 180 x 180 x 728 cm
The Juan & Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires
Olafur Eliasson
Wishes versus wonders, 2015
Steel, brass, mirror
90 x 500 x 250 cm, ø 6.5 cm
Commissioned by TBA21
Olafur Eliasson
Fivefold tunnel, 2000
Stainless steel
Approx. 222 x 126 x 1055 Weight of tunnels: Small: 180 kg Medium: 183 kg Large: 185 kg
Olafur Eliasson
New Berlin sphere, 2009
Stainless steel, colored glass, aluminum, bulb
Ø 140
Olafur Eliasson
Your uncertain shadow (color), 2010
HMI lamps, glass, aluminum
Olafur Eliasson
Your welcome reflected, 2003
Red and blue glass, steel cables, 2 motors, HMI spotlight, ballast, tripod
Each glass ø 75 cm
Olafur Eliasson
Five orientation lights, 1999
Stainless steel, colored glass, halogen bulbs, Fresnel lenses
The Juan & Patricia Vergez Collection, Buenos Aires
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