Once upon a time, when the weather was very cold and not bright enough, I decided to go to an art museum in Korea called Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. Leeum quite popular in Korea and that time there was an exhibition from an artist Olafur Eliasson. This exhibition has been held from 28 September 2016 until 26 February 2017.
As I arrived at Leeum, welcomed by the compost from a lot of magnetic bubbles as Leeum Museum's identity itself. And then you need to buy entrance tickets because there are some exhibitions: Leeum permanent exhibition and Olafur Eliasson Exhibition, the staff in the ticketing box will ask you, what kinds exhibition you want to visit. And for that day I and friends to pick the Olafur Eliasson Exhibition.
Admission ticket price for Olafur Eliasson Exhibition:
Adults 8,000₩
Ages 24 and under / Students 4,000₩
Seniors, Disabled 4,000₩
Digital Guide 1,000₩
Admission Ticket price for all exhibitions:
Daypass Adults 14,000₩
Daypass Ages 24 and under / Students 7,000₩
Daypass Seniors, Disabled 7,000₩
※ Digital Guide is free with the purchase of Daypass
After bought the tickets, time to go inside the exhibition room! Let's explore!
First, who is Olafur Eliasson?
Over the years, world-renowned Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967) has engaged in continuous experimentation, creating works that encompass his broad interests in topics such as nature, philosophy, science, and architecture, as well as the visual arts. Many of Eliasson’s works are composed primarily of immaterial elements, incorporating optical illusions, movement, light, and mirrors, visual experiments with light and color, and quasi-natural phenomena produced by machines. His works completely transform the museum into a new space, generating a wealth of new experiences for viewers.
The parliament of possibilities, Eliasson’s major solo exhibition at Leeum, introduces viewers to a wide range of notable works from throughout his career, spanning from the early nineteen-nineties to the present. The exhibition features a total of twenty-two works, made from water and light. The exhibited works were selected to offer viewers insight into Eliasson’s artistic practice, which reminds us that art exists in the present tense, continuously producing new meaning in the world.
Moss wall (1994)
Is a major work from early in Eliasson’s career. What you see is Cladonia rangiferina, which is also called reindeer moss, a lichen native to the northern regions, including Iceland. As the lichen dries, it shrinks and fades. However, when it is watered, the lichen expands and emits a pungent odor. Eliasson’s works often bring natural phenomena into the constructed space of the museum, where one becomes more aware that nature is also a construction.
Care spiral, 2016 / Power spiral, 2016
A loop of steel tubing has been coiled around itself to create a hanging sculpture composed of two concentric spirals. The outer surface of each spiral has been painted black, the inner surface, white. Hanging vertically from the ceiling, the spiral sculpture is suspended from a motor that causes it to steadily rotate. An illusion is conjured by the rotation of the two spirals: two waveforms appear to glide eternally past each other, one moving ever upwards within the column, the other forever descending.
The titles of these two works include the words “care” and “power.” The word “care” signifies the value placed in embracing the world, while the term “power” signifies control. Though these two values are usually thought to be in opposition, they can also create an effect of harmony in balance – as reflected in the relationship between the two different, yet similar, spirals.
The shape of disappearing time, 2016
The steel framework of this sculpture is an oloid, a geometrical shape created in 1929 by mathematician Paul Schatz, the inventor of the invertible cube. The oloid is derived from two interlocking circles in which the center of one intersects the perimeter of the other. The resulting form is the subject of geometric research by Studio Olafur Eliasson and has been used in several artworks by Olafur Eliasson.
A lamp shines out from the center of the sculpture, reflecting light off the work’s numerous brass panels and casting a beguiling pattern of light and shadow onto the surroundings. Your movement around the artwork continually reveals new perspectives of the complex form, causing it to appear as a flurry of movement and light.
Your unpredictable path, 2016
An organic arrangement of more than a thousand crystal spheres on a black background, Your unpredictable path resembles the nebulae that populate interstellar space. As you walk along the long wall, you may feel as if you were traveling between the stars. When you approach the work, you see countless inverted reflections of yourself and your surroundings in the mirror-coated rear surfaces of the glass spheres. By continually shifting in response to your movements and those of others, these dynamic reflections emphasize the ephemerality and contingency of the present moment.
Reversed waterfall, 1998
A four-tiered scaffolding, standing in the middle of a pool of water, supports four rectangular metal basins, one on each level. The installation reverses the usual gravitational flow of water with a system of pumps and hoses that shoot jets of water upwards. This unusual waterfall fills its surroundings with moisture and the sound of splashing water, stimulating the auditory and tactile senses of the audience, and perhaps suggesting thoughts about the relationship between human activity and nature.
Untitled (stone floor), 2004
Stone Floor is constructed from Icelandic volcanic stone of four different types and colors. The stone panels constitute a pattern of interlocking hexagons and parallelograms that create the illusion of repeating three-dimensional polyhedrons, which can be perceived differently according to the position of the viewers. The pattern refers to the quasi-brick, a modular space-filling polyhedron that was originally developed by architect and mathematician Einar Thorsteinn and used in a range of other projects by Studio Olafur Eliasson.
Your museum primer, 2014
Arcs of white and rainbow light are cast onto the walls of a darkened gallery by a ring of prismatic glass that rotates in the focused beam of a spotlight. As the ring turns, the arcs move along the walls, scanning the space and changing as they progress. This work cannot exist on its own but only by acting upon the space in which it is installed.
The last but not least, Rainbow assembly, 2016
Rays of light illuminate a circle of mist in a darkened room, creating shimmering rainbows in the air. Approaching the rainbows, you discover the machinery that produces them: rings of sprinklers and spotlights on the ceiling. An important feature of Eliasson’s works is that the mechanisms that produce them are never hidden, but always exposed. In this way, the works are not illusions that deceive and seduce the viewer, but rather demonstrations of how reality is always constructed.
All the information about the Artwork via http://leeum.samsungfoundation.org/html_eng/exhibition/main_view.asp
I had a good experience here, from all the artwork my favorite is The shape of disappearing time. I don't know why, but I feel there is something in this artwork, seems like you can turn back time or stop the time for a while when I saw that. And I feel sometimes If Only I have a shape of stuff which has the power to make time disappear, I want to erase time when I made mistakes or hurt other people.
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art Operation hour:
Opening hours - 10:30 - 18:00 (Box office closes at 17:30)
Closed every Monday, January 1, New Year's and Chuseok holidays.
Group tours – for 20 or more people reservation is required. (Group discounts are only available on weekdays)
Regular Fares Permanent Exhibition.
Individual :
Adults: 10,000₩ / Grup: 7,000₩
Discount: 5,000₩ / Grup: 4,000₩
Digital Guide: 1,000₩
※ Free entry for visitors of ages 6 and below, and Leeum Members (annual fee 100,000₩)
※ Discounts are offered to students, visitors of ages 7-24, seniors (65-), veterans and people with disabilities.
※ Culture Day (the last Wednesday of every month): 50% off admission (No additional discounts offered for groups, seniors or people with disabilities)
※ Korea Art Week 2016 (October 11 - 23) : 50% off admission (No additional discounts offered for groups, seniors or people with disabilities)
For more information please click http://leeum.samsungfoundation.org/html_eng/information/main.asp
How to get there:
Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art / 삼성미술관 리움
60-16 Itaewon-ro 55-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea 04348 / 서울특별시 용산구 이태원55길 60-16 04348
Telp: 02-2014-6901
Seoul Subway Station Line 6 to Hankangjin Station (한강진역) exit 3 or 1.
And even though this exhibition was done, Leeum Museum Art still has their permanent exhibition, so if you have time and you love art, I really recommended to come here, it will be worth!
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