Eliasson works with materials as varied as ice, wood, glass, moss and cacti. Investigating new materials is an important part of the work of his large studio, which, at the busiest times, has more than a hundred workers. This huge team is led by a single person, driven by something as simple as curiosity. “Curiosity is very important in my work, but it’s not something that can be forced”, he explains. “When I notice that I’m losing my curiosity, I feel I have to slow down my work.”
Hortensia Herrero commissioned Olafur Eliasson in 2020 to produce a site-specific work for the future Hortensia Herrero Art Centre in Valencia. For this purpose he was offered a passage on the second floor leading to a small room with no exit, so visitors have to retrace their steps. Eliasson designed a tunnel, which he entitled Tunnel for unfolding time (2022), in which the visitor can see 1,035 pieces of glass, each of a different size and design and in all the colours of the rainbow, but when you look back all you can see is a black tunnel. As Eliasson himself explains: “I made a tunnel for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art called One-way colour tunnel (2007), which was, in a way, the first seed of the ideas for this tunnel. This one is more ambitious and I think it’s much more developed in terms of how it accommodates or receives people. I wouldn’t say it’s more generous in that respect, but it does have more to offer. It’s denser, and this idea that when you pass through it, it seems to open up, means that perhaps it’s stretching out more. And then it plays with the idea that it’s very different depending on which way you go.”
