The internationally recognized artist Olafur Eliasson has inaugurated his most recent public art installation in Doha, Qatar. The installation, titled “Shadows Travelling on the Sea of the Day”, can be reached by diving through the rugged desert landscape northwards from Doha, past Fort Zubarah, and the village of Ain Mohammed. The artwork is visible from afar, but it is best experienced when approached on foot. Its hospitable shadows reward the journey.
The vast, sandy planes dotted with traces of animals, desert plants, and rock formations expand around the installation for kilometers, encouraging viewers to come in contact with themselves and their surroundings. When looking up, the ceilings fitted with large mirrors reflect the sandy ground below. The artist wants viewers to realize that when they look up, they actually look back down. It is an invitation for travelers to contemplate their connection to the ground.
The mirrors also reflect their semi-circular supports, completing them into perfect circles. The interconnected ceilings reflect an entanglement of landscape, sculptural elements, and visitors. The “Shadows Travelling on the Sea of the Day” celebrates everything that surrounds it, both the natural landscape and the cultural sphere.
According to Olafur Eliasson, the artwork can also be seen as a conduit for dialogue and for listening, while working as an outsider and as a European in a context like Qatar. He has expressed hope that creative collaborations such as this can provide “productive means for us to meet each other across communities and cultures, both now and in the longer term”. The artwork also aims to sensitize visitors to the beauty and complexity of the surrounding environment, and thus contribute to raising awareness regarding climate emergency.
When it comes to responding to something like the climate emergency, art, unlike activism, is often slow and circuitous. It offers multilayered spaces of wonder, questioning, and critical reflection. Yet I think art does help many people around the world to conjure up alternative perspectives and to imagine new narratives for how we can successfully co-exist on earth in a more sustainable way. “Shadows travelling on the sea of the day” will provide, I hope, a space for visitors to resync with the planet and may prompt conversations about climate action on a local scale. - Olafur Eliasson
Recently, the Studio Other Spaces, founded by artist Olafur Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann, has unveiled its wine-tasting pavilion for California wine producer The Donum Estate. Olafur Eliasson has also partnered with Carlo Ratti Associati's spin-off company Scribit to draw a crowdsourced illustration of the sun's path in thousands of people's homes using the Write&erase robot Scribit as a smart vertical plotter that creates illustrations inspired by sun path charts.
