Eliasson Olafur Quotes & Sayings

There is nothing good that does not meet with opposition, and it should not be valued any less because it encounters objections. — Vincent De Paul

I myself have already spent a third of my life in Germany, first in Cologne and then, since 1994, in Berlin. — Olafur Eliasson

When museums are left with so little money that their future is in the hands of private donors, then they are unable to develop their own signatures by collecting themselves. On the other hand, though, I think we should also celebrate the fact that there is a lot of art that lives outside of, or on the outskirts of, the art market - and it is doing quite well. — Olafur Eliasson

Wretched unfair, it is," he remarked. "Of the three of us, I'm the one who's always collected the rare and unusual, yet you two managed to snag the world's most unusual women. First you, Crispin, with the only living half-breed, who then turned into an even more unusual vampire. And now you, Charles, have bagged a shape-shifter. Thought you were joking when you said Denise was the kitty. I'm simply green with jealousy — Jeaniene Frost

I am not opposed to the art market. I have lots of friends who are collectors. But the whole idea of the art market is complex. Sadly we have a situation where auction houses and secondary market dealers are creating a lot of confusion and unnecessary pollution. — Olafur Eliasson

It would be wrong to say that the city of Berlin is not regulated. What I think is more interesting is to what extent a city creates a sort of safe haven for its users, so that people feel confident that the city works on their behalf. — Olafur Eliasson

Every city is always changing, on its own trajectory. — Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson is also one of the most visionary artists I've ever met. He is from Denmark and Iceland, and his focus is nothing less than the entire universe. — Victor Pinchuk

I've walked a lot in the mountains in Iceland. And as you come to a new valley, as you come to a new landscape, you have a certain view. If you stand still, the landscape doesn't necessarily tell you how big it is. It doesn't really tell you what you're looking at. The moment you start to move the mountain starts to move. — Olafur Eliasson

Photographs have a relevance for things that cannot be said. — Olafur Eliasson

I do not think making art alone makes it any better than making it with a team of people. — Olafur Eliasson

In the past, NASDAQ has defended flash orders. — Charles Duhigg

I think an artist has the potential to investigate both form and content within one activity, to show that there can be coherence between form and values in our society, as in thinking about a city and building one. — Olafur Eliasson

Artists are valuable to public discussion: They show the correlation between doing and thinking. — Olafur Eliasson

For the sake of sanity, the brain and the eyes keep things simple. But take away the sense of sight and suddenly things are not so simple. — Olafur Eliasson

It's hardly even noticeable that so many artists, designers and architects live here. It isn't reflected in the cityscape or in the museums. Many of the artists, for example, exhibit around the world, just not in Berlin. — Olafur Eliasson

There must be those who differ. If there were no unorthodox thought there would be no thought at all — Anatoli Rybakov

Bonhoeffer's rule never to speak about a brother in his absence. Bonhoeffer knew that living according to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was not "natural" for anyone. — Eric Metaxas

I don't think you need to be so result-oriented when you're trying to define the success of an art work. I think we can allow some unpredictability. — Olafur Eliasson

In the past Berlin was much more radical and extreme and now it's becoming much more of a conventional European city. — Olafur Eliasson

Having an experience is taking part in the world. Taking part in the world is really about sharing responsibility. — Olafur Eliasson

I was interested in how we engage the world. How do we use our skin as our eyes? If you read a cityscape or a landscape with just your mind, and not your body, it becomes like a picture or representation, not something you really engage with. — Olafur Eliasson

By bringing Little Sun to Tate Modern and the London Olympics, I hope to realise an art project for those who typically have no access to global events of this scale. — Olafur Eliasson

I can use the camera to make a place or landscape; the camera to a greater extent projects rather than takes in or reproduces. The camera, or, rather, the eye, produces the impression of the place: I as a photographer am not passively taking in; I am active as a subject generating the object. — Olafur Eliasson

I was in Beijing a month ago working on the smoke project in collaboration with an architect there, and I was asked very directly whether it was safe to breathe in the smoke. They did not have confidence in the museum not to use harmful smoke, and they certainly didn't have confidence that the city would protect them from harmful smoke. — Olafur Eliasson

I don't know a single collector or museum director who says: 'Oh, he's on a list, so I think I'll buy something of his.' The people who buy my art put a little more thought into it than that. — Olafur Eliasson

And I don't know where I'm heading. I mean, I've got a pretty good idea of what I want in life. — Jim Coleman

What I'm suggesting is we are going to look back, and we're going to see what happened in Syria, and we're going to see the larger destabilization of the Middle East, the rise of extremism, and we're going to wonder ... Why didn't we at least try to force a political solution - at an acceptable cost to us, because no one is saying we should send in ground troops - and if we did it would be worse than doing nothing ... If we do not act, we are going to look back and wonder why we didn't. — Anne-Marie Slaughter

1) Choose a person, older than yourself, you see frequently - not too often by approx once a week or once a month. Maybe one of your grandparents if they are still alive.
2) Every time you meet the chosen person you press your 2 pointing-fingers firmly against your eyes for 10 to 20 seconds until various colors and patterns arise.
3) Try to note or memorize the patterns and colors in connection with the context and repeat the practice every time you meet the chosen person for a as long as possible, minimum 6 months.
4) After minimum 6 months of this practice you can recall the person, virtually by pressing your eyes for a while. In the midst of the colors and pattern a sense of presence of the chosen person arrives even after the chosen person has died. — Hans Ulrich Obrist

Most conservative and progressive talk radio is primarily just that - bloviated opinion and whacky viewer calls. — David Shuster

People can forgive anything except being proved wrong. — Claudia Gray

If I have the choice of traveling to Russia, India or New Zealand alone for a week for preliminary discussions or to spend that week with my family, I routinely choose my family. — Olafur Eliasson

My goal is to formulate a new color theory based on the full spectrum of visible light. — Olafur Eliasson

Humility is the safeguard of chastity. In the matter of purity, there is no greater danger than not fearing the danger. For my part, when I find a man secure of himself and without fear, I give him up for lost. I am less alarmed for one who is tempted and who resists by avoiding the occasions, than for one who is not tempted and is not careful to avoid occasions. When a person puts himself in an occasion, saying, I shall not fall, it is an almost infallible sign that he will fall, and with great injury to his soul. — Philip Neri

I see the artist as a participant, a co-producer of reality. — Olafur Eliasson

I want to expose and evaluate the fact that the seeing and sensing process is a system that should not be taken for granted as natural - it's a cultivated means of reality production that, as a system, can be negotiated and changed. — Olafur Eliasson