about

In 1999, artist Olafur Eliasson photographed several dozen glaciers in Iceland as part of his on-going project to document the natural phenomena of the country; this particular series of photographs formed a work called The glacier series. Twenty years later, Eliasson decided to return to Iceland to photograph the glaciers again. A new work, The glacier melt series 1999/2019, brings together thirty pairs of images from 1999 and 2019 to reveal the dramatic impact that global warming is having on our world.

The glacier melt series 1999/2019 is on view as part of the exhibition In real life – at Tate Modern, London, through 5 January 2020 and at Guggenheim Bilbao from 14 February to 21 June 2020; it is also on view in an exhibition at Reykjavik Art Museum from 28 November 2019 to 9 February 2020.

biography

Olafur Eliasson was born in 1967. He grew up in Iceland and Denmark and studied from 1989 to 1995 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In 1995, he moved to Berlin and founded Studio Olafur Eliasson, which today comprises numerous craftsmen, architects, archivists, researchers, administrators, cooks, programmers, art historians, and specialised technicians. Since the mid-1990s Eliasson has realised numerous major exhibitions and projects in museums, galleries, and institutions around the world, and has also produced numerous prominent projects in public space.

In 2019 the United Nations Development Programme appointed Eliasson as a Goodwill Ambassador for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2012 Eliasson and engineer Frederik Ottesen founded the social business Little Sun. This global project provides clean, affordable energy to communities without access to electricity and raises global awareness. (littlesun.com)

Eliasson and architect Sebastian Behmann founded Studio Other Spaces, an international office for art and architecture, in Berlin in 2014. (studiootherspaces.net)

Eliasson lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin.

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