Bowlfuls of carbon-conscious, seasonal, and vegetarian fayre greet guests gathered for ‘Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life’ at Tate Modern’s Terrace Bar. If you’ve come to get closer to the globally recognised star-artist, to understand him ‘IRL', breaking bread is the place to start.
These bowls go deep. They represent Studio Olafur Eliasson’s message – of sustainability, community and experimentation – in its most elemental form. The Berlin studio (which comprises craftsmen, architects, archivists, filmmakers, administrators, cooks), is famed for its communal approach, typified by the daily lunches, cooked and eaten family-style on long benches. Think wholemeal sourdough and beet soup for the soul.
The Presence of Absence, by Olafur Eliasson, installation view at Tate Modern
The exhibition packs bellyfuls in. A 39m corridor of dense fog; 450 models, prototypes, and geometrical studies from the artist’s studio; a huge wall of reindeer moss from Finland – it’s an ambitious mesh of Eliasson’s three-decade long exploration of (among other things) climate change.
RELATED STORY
Outside, a dramatic Waterfall (2019) installation measures over 11m in height, with its exoskeleton of pumps and pipes on display. It’s positioned not far from where Ice Watch (an installation of glacial ice from Greenland) stood in December 2018, in a poignant curatorial decision that reflects the fragility of melting ice caps. Inside, the theme ruminates. One of the quieter exhibits, a series of photographs of Iceland’s glaciers taken by the artist in 1999, will be replaced in the autumn by a new artwork that incorporates the old series alongside photos taken 20 years on, illustrating the changes in this landscape that are happening now.
In a continuation of his Tate takeover – which, for the institution, no doubt presents exciting opportunities to replicate the blinding success of Eliasson's glowing sun, that attracted more than two million people in 2003 – a city of white Lego will be dropped into the Turbine Hall later this month, upon which visitors can unleash their inner architect.
Waterfall, 2019, by Olafur Eliasson, installation view outside Tate Modern. Photography: Anders Sune Berg.
Terrace Bar food menu, developed with Studio Olafur Eliasson
Moss wall, 1994, by Olafur Eliasson, installation view at Tate Modern, 2019. Photography: Anders Sune Berg. Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles. © 1994 Olafur Eliasson
Cold wind sphere, 2012, by Olafur Eliasson, installation view at Tate Modern, 2019. Photography: Anders Sune Berg. Gift of the Clarence Westbury Foundation, 2013. Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art modern, Centre de creation industrielle, Paris. © 2012 Olafur Eliasson.
INFORMATION
‘Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life’, until 5 January 2020, Tate Modern. tate.org.uk
ADDRESS
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
-
This picky customer finds ‘perfection’ at Nipotina, Mayfair’s new pizza and pasta jointWallpaper* contributing editor Nick Vinson reviews Nipotina, a new Italian restaurant in London offering a carefully edited menu of traditional dishes
-
Giant cats, Madonna wigs, pints of Guinness: seven objects that tell the story of fashion in 2024These objects tell an unconventional story of style in 2024, a year when the ephemera that populated designers’ universes was as intriguing as the collections themselves
-
How 2024 brought beauty and fashion closer than ever before2024 was a year when beauty and fashion got closer than ever before, with runway moments, collaborations and key launches setting the scene for 2025 and beyond
-
Inside the distorted world of artist George RouyFrequently drawing comparisons with Francis Bacon, painter George Rouy is gaining peer points for his use of classic techniques to distort the human form
-
‘I'm endlessly fascinated by the nude’: Somaya Critchlow’s intimate and confident drawings are on show in London‘Triple Threat’ at Maximillian William gallery in London is British artist Somaya Critchlow’s first show dedicated solely to drawing
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
-
Looking forward to Tate Modern’s 25th anniversary partyFrom 9-12 May 2025, Tate Modern, one of London’s most adored art museums, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lively weekend of festivities
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA week in the world of Wallpaper*. Here's how our editors have been entertaining themselves in the run up to Christmas
-
Love, melancholy and domesticity: Anna Calleja is a painter to watchAnna Calleja explores everyday themes in her exhibition, ‘One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night’, at Sim Smith, London
-
Ndayé Kouagou speaks the language of the chaotic social media influencer in LondonNdayé Kouagou celebrates meandering incoherence with an exhibition, ‘A Message for Everybody’, at Gathering in London
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
