Olafur Eliasson transforms the Manica Lunga wing of Castello di Rivoli by installing a new series of six immersive wedge-shaped optical device-like artworks in the long gallery. Inside each, the viewer can watch complex patterns unfold in fluid motion within a 360-degree panoramic space that seems more expansive than physically possible – optical illusions created through mirrors and light projections.
Since the late nineties, Eliasson’s practice has combined the memory of the encounter with nature with the broad branches of science and ecological thought, proposing works that invite the active participation of those who meet them. Orizzonti tremanti (Trembling horizons) presents new works that derive from experiments conducted by the artist at his Berlin studio. Eliasson was inspired by scientific instruments, taking into consideration the ambivalent role they have played throughout history. Produced over the last year, the new works on display propose a closer relationship between body and mind, recognizing the value of subjective and sensorial experience.
In the Manica Lunga – a vast baroque gallery – the exhibition opens with Navigation star for utopia, 2022, a luminous, suspended work that welcomes visitors. Its beams of colored light shine across the environment and draw light effects, almost suggesting an orientation tool for the future.
This is followed by the series of works the artist has created for the space of the Manica Lunga: Your curious kaleidorama, Your power kaleidorama, Your self-reflective kaleidorama, Your hesitant kaleidorama, Your memory of the kaleidorama, and Your living kaleidorama. Each is mounted on the gallery wall and oriented at a different angle. Visitors enter from below the constructions or face straight on to view projections of illuminated lines, forms, and patterns. These are generated in real time using a spotlight beam either reflected off an adjacent basin of water or shone through a lens system. Eliasson calls these works kaleidoramas, combining the words kaleidoscope and panorama.
Curated by Marcella Beccaria