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The Man Who Tames the Elements The Man Who Tames the Elements
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“The Weather Project”, installation, Tate Modern, London, 2003. Photo by Tate Photography (Andrew Dunkley & Marcus Leith) © 2003 Olafur Eliasson
The Four Elements

The Man Who Tames the Elements

An Interview with Olafur Eliasson
Jan Pelczar
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time 10 minutes
Jan Pelczar:
A journalist from Radio RAM. Author of the book 'Lecę. Piloci mi to powiedzieli' ('I'm Flying. Pilots Told Me That'). A graduate of the Polish School of Reportage. Associated with 'Przekrój' magazine since forever. In childhood, he flipped through all the editions at his grandparents'. In adulthood, he became addicted to the crossword puzzles of the Kaliber 45 collective and the drawings of Raczkowski.

He lit the sun over London, melted a glacier in Paris, and changed the colour of rivers in Iceland. Jan Pelczar talks to Olafur Eliasson, the man who sculpts with light, water and air.

On my way to meet Olafur Eliasson, I walk through a large part of Berlin. It is a cold but sunny day. I hope this is a good omen. For a while now, the artist has been interested in the influence of weather on the relationships between people. We talk at a library in the heart of the Olafur Eliasson Studio that employs more than 130 people, at a table under a lamp designed by the artist himself.

Jan Pelczar: Does the Olafur Eliasson Studio resemble the studios of other artists, or rather a science lab?

Olafur Eliasson: My interest in science always comes from an artistic point of view. I approach science with an artist’s licence and I enjoy more freedom than scientists. That’s why my studio is very different from their laboratories. I have different motivations and I don’t use scientific methods.

There are lots of glass globes and kaleidoscopes around here.

For many years, I worked on complex polyhedrons. I studied various combinations of forms and materials; I built an

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Jan Pelczar:
A journalist from Radio RAM. Author of the book 'Lecę. Piloci mi to powiedzieli' ('I'm Flying. Pilots Told Me That'). A graduate of the Polish School of Reportage. Associated with 'Przekrój' magazine since forever. In childhood, he flipped through all the editions at his grandparents'. In adulthood, he became addicted to the crossword puzzles of the Kaliber 45 collective and the drawings of Raczkowski.
Publish date: 22.03.2019

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Photo by Claudio von Planta for Muzeum Susch/Art Stations Foundation CH
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Stach Szabłowski:
a wandering critic, curator and art historian from Warsaw.

Grażyna Kulczyk could have opened her museum just about anywhere. Why did she choose the Swiss Alps?

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