About the work Your negotiable panorama

OLAFUR ELIASSON

ABOUT THE WORK
 

Your negotiable panorama (2006) by Olafur Eliasson is a large installation and a centerpiece of ARKEN’s collection.

The experience
A halo of light surrounds us in the darkness of Olafur Eliasson’s installation Your negotiable panorama (2006). The light gently wavers at our eye level, up and down on the round inner wall of the work, like a horizon line at sea at the hour of the night when the sky and the ocean are equally black, just before the sun brightens the sky. The installation is meditative and poetic, quiet and grandiose, at once.

The work is composed of a simple pump mechanism and a light shining into a pool of water. Paradoxically, the visibility of the construction does not limit our sensation of bathing in an endless void. On the contrary, the awareness that our experience is caused by a simple technical installation is fascinating.

We are participants in the work
We activate the work ourselves. Crossing the threshold to the installation, we activate a pump that makes the surface of the pool ripple. A light is reflected in the water and projected onto the wall. This way we become participants in the work, creating our own experience and our own panorama.
 
We know, naturally, that we are not facing a real horizon, that we are not really in the middle of the ocean, floating in the universal void. What we experience is the beauty of an approximation, an artificial, mediated experience of nature. This is one of the most important aspects of Eliasson’s work: the experience of “seeing yourself see,” becoming aware of your position, your gaze and your perception of the world, sensually and intellectually.