Olafur Quotes & Sayings

the 10,000hr rule is a definite key in success — Malcolm Gladwell

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

It was just over a year ago. Twelve months, nine days and six hours ago, actually. But thirteen months ago everything was ... perfect. — Sarah Ockler

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

I remember watching Meryl Streep in, The River Wild. There's this scene where she's has a gun pointed at her, it's absurd in a lot of ways. Someone pulls a gun on her I think, I'm not really fully aware of the scene and she just, she starts, you see her terrified. And then all of a sudden she starts to burst out laughing. She starts laughing. Like she can't stop laughing. Because she's terrified and she's emotional and there are no rules to what you're supposed to feel. That to me is like A number one, that's the thing I have to remind myself all the time. — Jake Gyllenhaal

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

There is no fair use to take something that doesn't belong to you. That's not fair use. — Jack Valenti

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

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

To reduce destructive emotions we need to strengthen constructive emotions. For example, to counter anger we cultivate love and compassion. — Dalai Lama

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

Being a Mountie's daughter means you know that the bad guys aren't just on TV. You know the good guys are real, too. — Sheree Fitch

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

The man who'd saved her wasn't just a pair of sexy lips and a rugged jaw with big, yummy eyes. He was the whole package. Seriously? What Earth woman would prefer downloading offspring when she could ravage this instead? — Patricia Eimer

You who seek God, apart, apart The thing you seek, thou art, thou art. If you want to seek the Beloved's face. Polish the mirror, gaze into that space. These words were written by Rumi as a tribute for his master guru Shams of Tabriz. — Wayne W. Dyer

Sexual underwear is tacky. — Izabella Scorupco

My intention is to create opportunities for reflections and meditations on history. — Shimon Attie

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

It has been noticed that people who are not parents often have a peculiar fondness for children. This is sometimes attributed to a very beautiful nostalgia for a gift denied to them - dream-children, flowers that have only bloomed in imagination - but we think it is rather because they have not the faintest idea how dreadful children are. — Angela Thirkell

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

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

I'd rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bath-chair and then die in the end just the same. — C.S. Lewis

I guess I can't be a great architect. Great architects have a recognizable style. But if every building I did were the same, it would be pretty boring. — Philip Johnson

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