OLAFUR ELIASSON PRESENTS ‘CONTACT’ | AN EXPANSIVE EXHIBITION AT THE FONDATION LOUIS VUITTON

As part of Foundation Louis Vuitton’s second phase of its inaugural programme, Olafur Eliasson presents ‘Contact’, an expansive exhibition showcasing a cosmos inside the Fondation. Revolving on the relationship between the self, space and the universe, ‘Contact’ is choreographed in exploring moving light and shadows, allowing visitors to travel into the outer space darkness. In its interplay with daylight, yellow light, shadows, reflections as well as visitor’s exploration, Eliasson exhibition intends to reconstruct the Fondation’s architecture structure with its changing perspectives.

One of the highlight of the exhibition originates from the Fondation’s roof, where the artist has installed a sun-tracking device, directing the rays of light on a many-sided geometric sculpture located inside the building. In his elaboration, Eliasson said, “ addresses that which lies at the edge of our senses and knowledge, of our imagination and our expectations. It is about the horizon that divides, for each of us, the known from the unknown.”

Encouraged by Laurence Bossé and Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as Suzanne Pagé, Eliasson took the risk of experimentation “for making the impossible possible” in forming a great dimension of the museum. In working with Frank Gehry’s architectural structure of the Fondation, Eliasson intervenes with his “geometric metronome” through his cosmos creations.

is the artist’s intention for visitors to feel as if they are asteroids, flowing in space while viewing the artworks and greeting other visitors. In the relation between the self and the universe, Eliasson explains, “I want visitors to enjoy this temporal sequence and to try to take ownership of it by gradually slowing it down or speeding it up. It is about feeling your own presence, taking charts of your own trajectory, your own orbit, in your new “asteroid” self.”

Olafur Eliasson: Contact
17th December 2014 – 16th February 2015
Fondation Louis Vuitton