Research map, 2019–ongoing Pin wall, print on paper (white and coloured), staples, wood Dimensions variable
Research map is a pin-board-inspired assembly of multiple printed images, text excerpts, and questions. The board is scaled for each exhibition to fit the architecture of its site and each exhibition context. The artwork presents various topics of research and inspiration sourced largely from books and the internet. These materials are then clustered around concepts, one for each letter of the alphabet, that resonate with key questions crystallised from the daily work of Eliasson’s studio. In this version, the map is presented on a custom-built wall in the museum spanning over thirty-five metres in length.
Research map has modest beginnings and was once a pin board of ideas, no more than a few square meters in size, used by Olafur Eliasson and a few studio members. Over time, it has grown to its current size through the multi-year work of the studio research team. As Eliasson has said, ‘As a viewer, you encounter parts of this collective studio brain. It is where the studio, forever evolving, minds itself and its engagements with the world. You may find yourself walking back and forth, moving up close and further away again. You may meander aimlessly through the content. There is potential, I hope, in losing oneself, in feeling a slight sense of discomfort or of being overwhelmed.’
The map is also a space of micro-storytelling via spatial proximity. Through the physical juxtaposition of material across its breadth on the wall, it embraces the delight of seemingly unrelated contents vibrating next to each other – of ideas making kin across time, minds, and geographies. While the alphabet still possesses an implied beginning (‘A’) and ending (‘Z’), Research map is meant to be approached nonlinearly. In Eliasson’s words, ‘The map includes scientific findings, artistic expressions, and other ways of imagining worlds. There are reflections on identity and belonging, on living and acting in the climate emergency, on justice and politics, on beauty and experimentation, on time, movement, and bodily engagement. These are all topics that relate to my artistic work – some directly, others as potential futures.’
By design, Research map is not and does not aspire to be complete. It is a provisional crosssection of knowledges held by a small group of humans that takes as its inspiration the interests of Eliasson. Each new version is thus an outcome of passionate debates, minds changed, and sensitivities heightened. Items are added with a sense of responsibility for their representation: projects by artists who inspire the studio; events that have mobilised communities; photos from funny corners of the internet; scientific articles, and excerpts from beloved books – the list goes on.
On a circular screen, an evocative show of ever-changing shapes, colours, light, and shadows emerges and evolves. The sequence develops and vanishes in a slow continuum that is at once twodimensional and architectural.
The light projection is created by shining a spotlight on a specially devised apparatus of lenses, mirrors, and colour-effect filters that rotate slowly on a motor. The movement unleashes a sequence of distortions, reflections, and refractions as the light travels through the various lenses and colour-effect filters. The resulting composition makes visible
the physical phenomenon of light bending and splitting. Although the sequence repeats in a continuous loop, the abstract nature of the work makes it appear always new, beyond simple comprehension.
Eliasson cites experiments in film and photography made in the early 20th century by constructivist and expressionist artists like Hans Richter and László Moholy-Nagy as inspiration for his approach to his projection pieces. The phenomenon of light refraction has also interested the artist for many years, giving rise to a range of works and, more recently, a series of glass works based on lens flares.
