Olafur Eliasson: The Weather Project

This sun is God, let’s not forget it. Life on Earth depends on his whim and life-giving force.

Olafur Eliasson and his 2003 Weather Project shown at London’s Tate turbine hall.

A great divine sun plus a mirror on the ceiling where visitors could see themselves as tiny black shadows against a mass of orange light. A mist of sweetened water is suspended in the air.

Eliasson views the weather – wind, rain, sun – as the only real ways to encounter nature available to people living in the city. For him, the London project is a way to recreate the power of nature for people locked in a modern space that cuts them off from the forces they were once subjected to.

Contemporary cities, building higher and higher walls, filling with shadows illuminated by artificial light, need the sun less and less. The sun serves us only as a lamp illuminating the landscapes and a source of energy for solar panels. Plunged in their own narcissism, cities forget that the sun is a god and put their own idols in its place.

Many visitors responded to this exhibition lying on their backs and waving their arms and legs towards the mirror. Art critic Brian O’Doherty described it this way: viewers, intoxicated with their own narcissism, wonder how to fly into the sky. ” Opened for six months, the exhibition reportedly attracted two million visitors, many of whom were returning visitors. O’Doherty was a positive reviewer for the exhibition, and speaking to Frieze in 2003, he stated that it was “the first time I saw an extremely gloomy space – like a coffin for a giant – revitalized in such an effective way.”

It is worth looking at other works by this artist dealing with the problem of climate change on Earth.