After Anish Kapoor last year, it is now the turn of Danish-Icelandic visual artist Olafur Eliasson to take over the Château de Versailles until October 30th 2016. The work of the internationally acclaimed artist investigates perception, movement, embodied experience, and feelings of self. With his waterfalls, fog, mirrors, and light landscapes installed around the gardens and château interior, Eliasson really brings something different to the Chateau. To visit without a doubt!
He also is best known for striking installations such as the hugely popular The weather project (2003) in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London, which was seen by more than two million people, and The New York City Waterfalls (2008), four large-scale artificial waterfalls which were installed on the shorelines of Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Since 2008 the Palace of Versailles has put on a number of exhibitions dedicated to French or foreign artists, each one lasting a few months. Jeff Koons in 2008, Xavier Veilhan in 2009, Takashi Murakami in 2010, Bernar Venet in 2011, Joana Vasconcelos in 2012, Giuseppe Penone in 2013, Lee Ufan in 2014 and Anish Kapoor in 2015: these artists have all created a special dialogue between their works and the Palace and Gardens of Versailles.Since 2013 Alfred Pacquement is the curator of these exhibitions.
“The Versailles that I have been dreaming up is a place that empowers everyone. It invites visitors to take control of the authorship of their experience instead of simply consuming and being dazzled by the grandeur. It asks them to exercise their senses, to embrace the unexpected, to drift through the gardens, and to feel the landscape take shape through their movement.”
– Olafur Eliasson
photo: Anders Sune Berg
