SAGA SHOP - Haust I Fall 2019

56 Icelandair Stopover BY EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR. The wind, blowing straight in from the Arctic Ocean, is relentless. I’m wearing woolen underwear and a wind- breaker, yet struggle to keep warm on this stormy day in July in remote Northeast Iceland. The driftwood that has piled up on the rocky beach captivates me, and I try to picture the forces of nature that carried all these logs from Siberia to Langanes. One week on and I’m wearing a flowery summer dress at the press view prior to the opening of Olafur Eliasson: In real life at Tate Modern. Among the artwork on display is driftwood, some of it originating from Langanes. The exhibition opened on July 11 and will run through January 5, 2020. Social Responsibility “It’s almost 30 years of my work. A mid-career survey. But there’s lots more to come!”, declares Ólafur at the press view of In real life . He talks of his excitement of returning to the Tate after 16 years; in 2003 The weather project with its artificial sun attracted huge crowds to the Turbine Hall. “This is a broader collection and the biggest show of its kind,” states Ólafur—it’s the largest survey of his work to date and it explores the various and wide- -reaching aspects of his art. “Artists can contribute to the dialogue on the environment, sustainability and climate emergency,” opines Ólafur. In one of the rooms at In real life I observe a series of photo- graphs of glaciers that Ólafur took on his travels in Iceland SPIRIT OF ICELAND: REAL LIFE QUESTIONS Olafur Eliasson: In real life at Tate Modern features some of Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur Elíasson’s most thought- provoking sculptures, paintings, photographs and installations. in 1999. This past summer he returned to Iceland to photograph the same locations 20 years on. The second series will be placed next to the original this autumn to demonstrate the extent of glacier melting in only two decades—apt, as Iceland bid farewell to its first glacier, Ok, in late August. Ólafur also plays with the bound- aries of public and private space, reasoning that when people are confronted with art, they auto- matically interact with it. In 2008, his New York City Waterfalls added a spectacular natural dimension to the cityscape. Now one of his waterfalls tumbles from a scaffold outside the Tate. In December 2018 Ólafur and Greenlandic professor of geology Minik Rosing moved huge chunks of glacial ice to London for Ice Watch (2014) on the occasion of COP24 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland, and the third anniversary of the Paris Agreement. The The artist in his studio. Photo by Runa Maya Mørk Huber / Studio Olafur Eliasson © 2017 Olafur Eliasson. (Continues on page 58.) Installation view of Olafur Eliasson: In real life at Tate Modern, July 11, 2019 – January 5, 2020, including “Adrift Compass.” Photo by Anders Sune Berg.