1 00:00:07,020 --> 00:00:10,230 I would like to design an experiment with you. 2 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,070 This means that you and I are gonna collaborate and... 3 00:00:14,780 --> 00:00:17,950 for that to happen, it would be great if you could turn off... 4 00:00:18,990 --> 00:00:22,410 any other light than the screen you're looking at. 5 00:00:23,660 --> 00:00:27,130 You could pause the episode here and sort it out, 6 00:00:27,790 --> 00:00:29,000 but think of... 7 00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:32,510 the screen, the TV, as a lamp. 8 00:00:34,470 --> 00:00:37,550 You shouldn't, uh, look at the screen, look at the space around the screen 9 00:00:37,640 --> 00:00:40,180 and pay attention to how you are in that space. 10 00:00:40,260 --> 00:00:42,520 But let's... let's just get started. So, check this out. 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:44,980 First, I'm gonna start by making it yellow. 12 00:00:46,770 --> 00:00:48,190 I like the color yellow, 13 00:00:48,270 --> 00:00:50,860 but see how the room is in fact now yellow. 14 00:00:52,570 --> 00:00:53,650 Enjoy the yellow. 15 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:56,660 Maybe take a deep breath. 16 00:00:57,990 --> 00:00:59,240 Let's change that color. 17 00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:04,210 Do you see how your room suddenly changed? 18 00:01:06,170 --> 00:01:09,420 Red light makes you more calm, it makes you tired. It relaxes you. 19 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,510 Where, with a certain blue color, you stay awake. 20 00:01:17,550 --> 00:01:21,060 So, every color has a sort of different way of influencing us. 21 00:01:22,390 --> 00:01:23,850 This is what art is about. 22 00:01:24,430 --> 00:01:26,810 You are a co-author with me, 23 00:01:27,770 --> 00:01:31,400 the main protagonist. What you see is quite up to you. 24 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:41,660 Olafur Eliasson: 25 00:01:42,120 --> 00:01:44,870 artist, architect, and design phenom. 26 00:01:45,450 --> 00:01:48,290 In Olafur's work, you first have a "wow," 27 00:01:49,290 --> 00:01:50,840 and then you have an "aha." 28 00:01:57,130 --> 00:01:58,590 Olafur Eliasson is celebrated 29 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,760 for creating immersive spaces and experiences. 30 00:02:03,970 --> 00:02:07,020 He's truly an artist who interacts with his environment. 31 00:02:08,730 --> 00:02:12,110 Eliasson is an expert in the art of smoke and mirrors. 32 00:02:14,070 --> 00:02:15,780 There is no artist on the planet 33 00:02:15,860 --> 00:02:18,570 operating on a more global scale than Olafur. 34 00:02:23,450 --> 00:02:27,910 To him, changing the world means changing the way we experience the world. 35 00:02:45,510 --> 00:02:47,980 This is my studio in Berlin, and, um... 36 00:02:49,270 --> 00:02:51,560 the studio is really a place where... 37 00:02:52,230 --> 00:02:55,190 I and the team, we work together making art. 38 00:02:56,610 --> 00:02:59,360 I love my studio being exciting and magical 39 00:02:59,450 --> 00:03:03,370 and capable of doing things that otherwise would be hard to do, 40 00:03:03,450 --> 00:03:04,830 because we just play a lot. 41 00:03:05,740 --> 00:03:07,830 It's not rational, it's not pragmatic. 42 00:03:08,540 --> 00:03:10,040 I mean, it's about making art. 43 00:03:11,290 --> 00:03:15,250 So, it's not like walking out of reality into some kind of dream world, right? 44 00:03:15,340 --> 00:03:16,840 You actually walk into the studio 45 00:03:16,920 --> 00:03:19,380 and you see the real world in a microscope. 46 00:03:20,050 --> 00:03:22,640 The mirror is looking to the center at the moment. 47 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:24,906 Yeah, but that means the mirror is looking to the center 48 00:03:24,930 --> 00:03:26,180 but is on the side of the ball. 49 00:03:26,260 --> 00:03:27,350 - Yes. - Okay. 50 00:03:27,430 --> 00:03:29,350 I mean, there's so much going on 51 00:03:29,730 --> 00:03:32,230 that you don't really look... 52 00:03:33,060 --> 00:03:34,100 carefully enough. 53 00:03:35,310 --> 00:03:36,950 I think it's maybe more interesting if... 54 00:03:38,110 --> 00:03:39,610 maybe they are connected like this? 55 00:03:39,690 --> 00:03:42,950 Because somehow the baits are taking too much attention. 56 00:03:44,110 --> 00:03:45,870 Okay, great. Let's go on. 57 00:03:48,410 --> 00:03:49,910 Phil? Yeah. 58 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:54,040 Olafur likes... 59 00:03:54,790 --> 00:03:56,380 different kind of materials, 60 00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,590 different way to structure things. 61 00:04:01,010 --> 00:04:04,130 So, that openness lead him to... 62 00:04:04,680 --> 00:04:06,390 a new type of art. 63 00:04:10,680 --> 00:04:14,140 A lot of my work is exploring this notion of... 64 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:18,230 what we consider truth depends on how you look at it. 65 00:04:20,110 --> 00:04:23,200 We create reality as we go through space. 66 00:04:28,950 --> 00:04:30,660 When you look at a work of art, 67 00:04:32,500 --> 00:04:34,960 it is as if it is looking at you. 68 00:04:35,460 --> 00:04:37,960 You are the one who's being listened to. 69 00:04:43,300 --> 00:04:47,640 My work is completely dependent on the spectator 70 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,140 turning ideas into art. 71 00:04:51,310 --> 00:04:54,730 And that's the same thing with, you know, a Netflix space. 72 00:04:55,020 --> 00:04:58,190 Obviously, we have a situation where somebody's watching, right? 73 00:04:58,650 --> 00:05:00,110 Hello. And then, 74 00:05:00,860 --> 00:05:02,740 I assume there's a kind of a screen. 75 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:08,530 Maybe it is interesting to explore what these people are actually looking at. 76 00:05:08,620 --> 00:05:10,410 I mean, what's actually going on. 77 00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:16,000 The thing is, this is a constructed situation. 78 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:17,170 Let me just show you. 79 00:05:17,370 --> 00:05:20,290 See this? This is you... This is you and the camera, right? 80 00:05:20,380 --> 00:05:23,340 Look, it's like I'm surrounded with all these people here. 81 00:05:23,960 --> 00:05:25,380 I mean, what we take for granted... 82 00:05:25,470 --> 00:05:27,760 "Oh, he's talking to the camera," is actually... 83 00:05:27,840 --> 00:05:29,680 I wouldn't say it's manipulated, but, you know, 84 00:05:30,100 --> 00:05:32,100 it's... for sure it's constructed, right? 85 00:05:32,180 --> 00:05:33,720 A little bit like this episode. 86 00:05:34,930 --> 00:05:38,150 Okay, here. Why don't you talk to Mark? Here, hold on a second. 87 00:05:38,230 --> 00:05:40,730 So, when I started, I was really interested in... 88 00:05:41,190 --> 00:05:43,480 what was between the walls. 89 00:05:43,570 --> 00:05:46,450 I mean, that invisible thing, which is, I guess... 90 00:05:46,530 --> 00:05:50,660 I guess it's just air, but how can I just show the nothingness? 91 00:05:52,660 --> 00:05:56,290 So, one of my very first works was an attempt to make a rainbow. 92 00:05:58,290 --> 00:06:00,290 I thought about how is a rainbow made. 93 00:06:01,590 --> 00:06:03,500 But the truth is, there's not much to it. 94 00:06:04,920 --> 00:06:08,470 It's about the angle of the eye, the drop, and the light. 95 00:06:09,390 --> 00:06:11,100 And if there is no eye, 96 00:06:11,180 --> 00:06:14,100 then that angle is not there and then there is no rainbow. 97 00:06:14,310 --> 00:06:16,640 The person next to you doesn't see your rainbow, 98 00:06:16,730 --> 00:06:18,560 because that eye is somewhere else. 99 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:23,980 This is a space totally dependent on you being there. 100 00:06:25,610 --> 00:06:29,150 When you leave the exhibition, there's nobody in the room. 101 00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:31,410 There's also no art. 102 00:06:32,830 --> 00:06:35,490 It's not about a rainbow, really. It's really about... 103 00:06:35,700 --> 00:06:38,750 "Do I trust my own eyes and my own capacity to... 104 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:40,790 engage in the world?" 105 00:06:45,550 --> 00:06:47,550 So, why do I make what I make, right? 106 00:06:59,230 --> 00:07:01,770 I grew up in Denmark, and I spent a lot of time... 107 00:07:02,650 --> 00:07:04,190 with my father in Iceland. 108 00:07:05,570 --> 00:07:10,070 And using water, or mist, or light just came natural to me. 109 00:07:12,700 --> 00:07:15,160 And I like referencing the nature in my work. 110 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:18,870 See if I can film people looking at it. 111 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:23,580 Sorry, there's no photography allowed in here. 112 00:07:23,670 --> 00:07:27,460 Okay. Uh, I am, uh, the artist. I'm sure it's okay. Thank you. 113 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:33,390 Nature became a kind of a way for me 114 00:07:33,970 --> 00:07:35,220 to create a language 115 00:07:35,300 --> 00:07:38,020 which people could relate to. 116 00:07:40,810 --> 00:07:43,560 Because everybody knows a rainbow. 117 00:07:45,060 --> 00:07:48,320 It's a natural phenomena and something very easily accessible. 118 00:07:48,980 --> 00:07:51,740 And because the water is kind of falling, you're suddenly conscious 119 00:07:51,820 --> 00:07:53,320 about time is passing somehow. 120 00:07:54,990 --> 00:07:56,870 That's why I like this waterfall a lot 121 00:07:56,950 --> 00:07:59,450 because it's great to just get a sense of the scale 122 00:07:59,540 --> 00:08:03,120 simply by looking at the speed of the water as it falls. 123 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:07,920 That's why I took this waterfall and I made it under the Brooklyn Bridge. 124 00:08:12,300 --> 00:08:14,130 Because looking at that 125 00:08:14,590 --> 00:08:17,260 from Manhattan, for instance, you realize, 126 00:08:17,350 --> 00:08:19,970 "Oh, my God. The Brooklyn Bridge is so big... 127 00:08:21,810 --> 00:08:25,350 and the distance across the East River is very long." 128 00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:29,690 And once you know the size of the waterfall, 129 00:08:29,780 --> 00:08:32,820 you also know the size of your own body. 130 00:08:34,910 --> 00:08:37,120 And this is where it gets interesting, right? 131 00:08:38,660 --> 00:08:41,830 It's not so much about the mountain or the landscape and nature and so on, 132 00:08:41,910 --> 00:08:42,910 it's about us. 133 00:09:00,510 --> 00:09:02,020 Who has the courage 134 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:04,180 to do something of this scale? 135 00:09:04,270 --> 00:09:05,390 It's enormous. 136 00:09:07,980 --> 00:09:12,440 You have to be so sure in your idea 137 00:09:12,900 --> 00:09:15,030 that you're willing to take that big risk. 138 00:09:15,820 --> 00:09:19,200 And you don't find that that often in artists. 139 00:09:24,910 --> 00:09:26,290 So, the way I always work 140 00:09:26,370 --> 00:09:29,500 is that, obviously, things start with an idea, right? 141 00:09:29,590 --> 00:09:31,800 So, an idea is like... like here, right? 142 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:36,880 And then, immediately, you have a problem that the idea doesn't have any words. 143 00:09:37,430 --> 00:09:41,970 And there's that lovely, interesting space before you verbalize your idea. 144 00:09:42,470 --> 00:09:44,536 On top of that, the idea comes from somewhere, right? 145 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:46,480 So, there's something before the idea. 146 00:09:46,810 --> 00:09:50,520 That's an interesting space too, right? Because where do we get ideas from? 147 00:09:52,360 --> 00:09:54,610 I get ideas when I work hard. 148 00:09:57,820 --> 00:10:01,030 Collaboration is very much at the heart of my work. 149 00:10:02,530 --> 00:10:04,240 This is the work we talked about, 150 00:10:04,330 --> 00:10:08,080 and these are the colors that we ordered. 151 00:10:08,370 --> 00:10:10,540 I need to give the idea language, 152 00:10:10,630 --> 00:10:12,670 and the answer to what language is 153 00:10:12,750 --> 00:10:14,500 is to maybe analyze a little bit, 154 00:10:15,300 --> 00:10:19,010 "Why on earth did I get that idea? Why am I interested in that?" 155 00:10:20,890 --> 00:10:23,390 So, this is the space where I make drawings 156 00:10:23,470 --> 00:10:25,930 because I don't know how to put words on it. 157 00:10:28,190 --> 00:10:30,190 The next step is in the language, right? 158 00:10:30,270 --> 00:10:34,230 I'm very happy to have an amazing team who take the language 159 00:10:34,610 --> 00:10:35,610 and the drawing, 160 00:10:35,860 --> 00:10:37,530 and then we start making models. 161 00:10:37,940 --> 00:10:39,860 I'll just write here, "model." 162 00:10:41,950 --> 00:10:42,950 Oh, it's great. 163 00:10:43,450 --> 00:10:47,200 And these models, they... they kind of give the idea 164 00:10:47,540 --> 00:10:50,580 and the drawing dimensionality. Suddenly, it becomes about space. 165 00:10:53,250 --> 00:10:56,800 And this is actually a work I'm doing for an exhibition in Los Angeles 166 00:10:57,380 --> 00:10:58,380 at, um... 167 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:00,340 at a... a gallery, 168 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:02,680 here now, in two months, 169 00:11:03,550 --> 00:11:05,310 which is about smaller works, 170 00:11:05,560 --> 00:11:07,850 things that you can put in your own house. 171 00:11:08,930 --> 00:11:10,810 It needs to be a bit more... 172 00:11:10,890 --> 00:11:12,770 - Like in a lighter... - Right. Yeah, brighter. 173 00:11:12,850 --> 00:11:14,020 - You're right. - Yeah. 174 00:11:14,730 --> 00:11:17,900 My role is to make sure that it's a work of art, and... 175 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:20,530 what drives every decision is 176 00:11:20,610 --> 00:11:22,700 not how, but why. 177 00:11:24,450 --> 00:11:27,370 The team is trying to come up with a "how," 178 00:11:27,790 --> 00:11:29,080 so my role is like the... 179 00:11:29,710 --> 00:11:30,870 the "why" person. 180 00:11:30,960 --> 00:11:32,120 Should we bend it back a bit? 181 00:11:32,210 --> 00:11:33,630 Yeah. Take it back a bit. 182 00:11:33,710 --> 00:11:34,710 That's too much. 183 00:11:37,170 --> 00:11:39,170 I remember early on, 184 00:11:39,510 --> 00:11:43,720 Olafur, I visited him in the studio, and he'd installed a light 185 00:11:44,180 --> 00:11:45,760 that I perceived as yellow, 186 00:11:45,850 --> 00:11:48,140 and I only understood gradually 187 00:11:48,220 --> 00:11:50,230 that I didn't see any other colors. 188 00:11:50,310 --> 00:11:52,980 All of a sudden, everything was black and white and gray. 189 00:11:54,940 --> 00:11:57,940 I came across a lamp that takes away all the colors. 190 00:11:58,610 --> 00:12:00,050 And I thought, "Oh, it's a miracle." 191 00:12:01,570 --> 00:12:05,620 So, this is monochromatic light. So, it looks like there is no colors. 192 00:12:05,700 --> 00:12:07,330 I mean, there is in fact no colors here, 193 00:12:07,410 --> 00:12:10,200 because there is no white light to bounce it back onto us. 194 00:12:10,580 --> 00:12:11,790 But have a look at this. 195 00:12:14,670 --> 00:12:17,630 It's the prismatic colors, it's the rainbow. 196 00:12:19,210 --> 00:12:20,920 All the colors are actually there. 197 00:12:24,510 --> 00:12:26,890 One of my very first exhibitions 198 00:12:26,970 --> 00:12:29,640 had a huge yellow room 199 00:12:30,220 --> 00:12:32,560 for people to look at their hands and go like, 200 00:12:33,890 --> 00:12:34,900 "The color's gone." 201 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:40,280 It turned out that the absence of color 202 00:12:40,650 --> 00:12:43,650 kind of makes you more attentive to everything else. 203 00:12:44,570 --> 00:12:45,950 We kind of see more. 204 00:12:46,820 --> 00:12:48,660 But the museum director said, 205 00:12:48,740 --> 00:12:52,450 "You are not just gonna make an empty, yellow room." 206 00:12:52,750 --> 00:12:54,330 He was, like, on his knees, 207 00:12:54,410 --> 00:12:57,630 "Can't we put just one small red rose on the floor, 208 00:12:57,710 --> 00:13:00,210 so that when you look at it, it's not red anymore?" 209 00:13:01,210 --> 00:13:02,800 And I said, "No, 210 00:13:03,380 --> 00:13:05,550 because then the show is about a red rose." 211 00:13:06,890 --> 00:13:09,600 Though sometimes you get obsessed with "how" 212 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:12,390 and then you sort of lose sight of why we're doing it. 213 00:13:18,650 --> 00:13:20,020 I kept using the yellow light. 214 00:13:20,110 --> 00:13:23,320 I did a few works with it, which were very minimal. 215 00:13:24,690 --> 00:13:28,110 And when I was working very close with a great curator at the Tate... 216 00:13:30,530 --> 00:13:32,450 I thought of, um... 217 00:13:32,540 --> 00:13:33,540 the weather. 218 00:13:35,370 --> 00:13:36,870 This is now 2003, 219 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:41,250 and for me, personally, it was where consciousness about the climate started. 220 00:13:44,130 --> 00:13:45,300 But the Weather Project, 221 00:13:45,380 --> 00:13:48,590 to do it was a long process. 222 00:13:49,890 --> 00:13:53,350 Where I actually ended up building a huge model of the space 223 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:54,980 that I could walk in. 224 00:13:56,520 --> 00:13:58,770 It was very much about, "How can I make 225 00:13:58,850 --> 00:14:01,270 the air, or the void, or the atmosphere 226 00:14:01,690 --> 00:14:02,690 visible?" 227 00:14:02,730 --> 00:14:05,650 And that's how I got to think of fog. 228 00:14:09,360 --> 00:14:10,740 Once you look up, 229 00:14:10,950 --> 00:14:13,660 I wanted to block out the skylight. 230 00:14:16,660 --> 00:14:20,830 And then I decided to have mirrors to make the space appear even bigger. 231 00:14:23,550 --> 00:14:26,840 Then I thought, "Why don't I do just half a sphere, and the other half will be 232 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:29,220 in the mirror, 233 00:14:30,050 --> 00:14:31,220 which also then somehow 234 00:14:31,550 --> 00:14:34,060 suggests that it is actually twice the height, 235 00:14:34,510 --> 00:14:37,350 because the eye and the brain is actually easily fooled. 236 00:14:38,770 --> 00:14:41,060 And luckily, it looked like the model. 237 00:14:46,650 --> 00:14:48,400 The monochromatic yellow light 238 00:14:48,700 --> 00:14:52,820 gives you this otherworldly sense of, you know, a kind of artificial sky. 239 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:56,410 That's why I called it the Weather Project. 240 00:14:58,750 --> 00:15:01,710 And it was clear that people were having very different experiences. 241 00:15:01,790 --> 00:15:04,500 Some said, "Oh, my God. This is doom and gloom. 242 00:15:04,590 --> 00:15:06,170 It's about apocalypse." 243 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,590 And some people said, "Oh, it's about, you know, contemplative spirituality 244 00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:12,390 and I need to do some yoga." 245 00:15:15,560 --> 00:15:18,140 And interestingly, these two versions of it 246 00:15:18,220 --> 00:15:19,560 could still be together. 247 00:15:22,650 --> 00:15:26,270 You don't have to be the same in order to share a space. 248 00:15:30,610 --> 00:15:32,990 And the yellow light, I think, was a key driver 249 00:15:33,070 --> 00:15:34,120 in that whole thing. 250 00:15:38,580 --> 00:15:41,620 The Weather Project marked a certain paradigm change 251 00:15:41,710 --> 00:15:44,250 in how people perceive contemporary art. 252 00:15:44,330 --> 00:15:47,880 It's something that's relevant to the way how you see the world. 253 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:54,220 And it made him much more known in a much wider audience. 254 00:15:58,890 --> 00:16:01,020 We got it. Thank you so much. 255 00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:02,480 Cheers. 256 00:16:03,230 --> 00:16:04,230 Good. 257 00:16:04,270 --> 00:16:07,230 What do you say, "It's a wrap?" How do you say that? 258 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:10,070 - Not yet. - Oh, not yet. I see, okay. 259 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:23,330 So, now we're on the southern coast... 260 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,340 of Iceland, and here, this is actually not too far from where my father lived. 261 00:16:30,420 --> 00:16:32,340 My father was an artist. 262 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,050 I actually think my father's first painting 263 00:16:36,140 --> 00:16:37,680 is sort of a black beach. 264 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:39,180 Maybe this is here. 265 00:16:41,810 --> 00:16:44,600 - Do we have my father's films? - Yeah, we do. 266 00:16:46,270 --> 00:16:49,110 He was a very playful artist who did many different things, 267 00:16:49,190 --> 00:16:51,150 and I guess maybe that's why he was not... 268 00:16:51,820 --> 00:16:54,280 successful as an artist. He couldn't live from it. 269 00:16:56,740 --> 00:16:57,740 That's my father. 270 00:16:57,910 --> 00:17:01,790 As a child, I was kind of scared that he had a cast of his own head. 271 00:17:02,250 --> 00:17:04,460 So, always in my father's studio, there was this... 272 00:17:04,540 --> 00:17:05,540 his head, 273 00:17:05,620 --> 00:17:07,540 sitting on a pedestal. 274 00:17:08,540 --> 00:17:10,210 My father was a little bit crazy. 275 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,170 My parents were divorced, 276 00:17:12,260 --> 00:17:14,720 and probably because I was living with my mother, 277 00:17:14,800 --> 00:17:17,720 I thought that everything my father did was, like, amazing. 278 00:17:18,300 --> 00:17:19,720 Of course I wanted him 279 00:17:20,310 --> 00:17:21,310 to like me so much, 280 00:17:21,350 --> 00:17:24,480 so when I stayed with my mother, I always would send my father drawings. 281 00:17:25,350 --> 00:17:27,980 And my father would tell me to send him new drawings. 282 00:17:28,730 --> 00:17:30,440 All in all, I had pretty good support. 283 00:17:32,860 --> 00:17:35,610 But what more influenced me was maybe the fact that... 284 00:17:36,700 --> 00:17:39,990 what I did did not necessarily have to, um... 285 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:41,870 I don't know how to say it exactly. 286 00:17:42,700 --> 00:17:46,620 It... It didn't have to be successful in order to be quality. 287 00:17:49,790 --> 00:17:51,540 So, now that I'm a parent... 288 00:17:53,210 --> 00:17:55,340 I try to not push... 289 00:17:56,550 --> 00:17:57,550 my kids. 290 00:17:58,760 --> 00:17:59,760 It was... 291 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:02,760 It sounds... It sort of sounds wrong today, right? 292 00:18:02,850 --> 00:18:04,810 But my parent actually did not... 293 00:18:06,270 --> 00:18:09,020 ask me to do something seriously. 294 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:10,610 That's interesting. 295 00:18:19,070 --> 00:18:21,120 - Is this going to LA as well? - It is. 296 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:23,870 Okay, we have to work on the lights, uh, on these ones here. 297 00:18:23,950 --> 00:18:25,870 Yeah, okay. So, we got this one. 298 00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:30,250 Oh, this looks really bad. It doesn't work at all. 299 00:18:30,330 --> 00:18:31,330 Okay. 300 00:18:32,210 --> 00:18:35,590 So, this one, it's really strong and really white... 301 00:18:35,670 --> 00:18:38,760 - Yes. - to create some structure on the wall. 302 00:18:39,300 --> 00:18:40,590 That's a lot nicer now. 303 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:42,800 - This is much better. - Yeah? 304 00:18:43,930 --> 00:18:46,020 - Brita, can you turn it on? - Sure. 305 00:18:51,940 --> 00:18:55,190 I like that the purple got so dark that it looks black. 306 00:18:55,480 --> 00:18:59,240 But then, when you look closer, it's actually very, very deep purple. 307 00:19:01,160 --> 00:19:03,070 It's almost a pity, uh... 308 00:19:05,330 --> 00:19:06,330 to send it away. 309 00:19:07,250 --> 00:19:09,160 It's... It's not the one I'm keeping, is it? 310 00:19:09,250 --> 00:19:11,370 No, no. It's for the LA show. 311 00:19:11,460 --> 00:19:12,630 Oh, horrible. 312 00:19:16,130 --> 00:19:18,840 What makes a space tolerable, more inclusive? 313 00:19:22,510 --> 00:19:24,430 The body is a good indicator. 314 00:19:33,190 --> 00:19:34,610 Who knows about the body? 315 00:19:36,020 --> 00:19:37,020 Dancers. 316 00:19:38,860 --> 00:19:41,200 I believe it was '83, 317 00:19:41,820 --> 00:19:44,320 maybe '82, actually, so it was very early. 318 00:19:46,620 --> 00:19:51,080 In a store window, there was these people mimicking a mannequin, 319 00:19:51,370 --> 00:19:52,890 and then they would move like a robot. 320 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,260 It really totally and utterly blew my mind. 321 00:20:02,300 --> 00:20:05,090 And it was as if I had seen the light. 322 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,930 Just like a whole new world just opened for me. 323 00:20:10,930 --> 00:20:13,100 And I could not stop moving like a robot. 324 00:20:17,770 --> 00:20:20,150 So, because I had started so early, 325 00:20:20,780 --> 00:20:22,990 by the time it became more mainstream fashion, 326 00:20:23,070 --> 00:20:24,570 me and a few other guys, 327 00:20:25,570 --> 00:20:27,830 we had become quite good at what we're doing. 328 00:20:31,660 --> 00:20:33,460 We danced in shopping malls, 329 00:20:33,870 --> 00:20:35,630 clubs, and discotheques. 330 00:20:36,380 --> 00:20:39,460 But at the end of the day, it gave me a lot of self-confidence 331 00:20:39,550 --> 00:20:43,130 and it taught me a lot about physicality and space. 332 00:20:45,130 --> 00:20:48,010 Dancing totally had a significant impact on me. 333 00:20:50,390 --> 00:20:54,230 I've become very interested in movements and geometry. 334 00:20:57,650 --> 00:20:59,820 I'm just... I'm just working with this mirror here. 335 00:20:59,900 --> 00:21:03,740 And it's so nice. It's a round mirror and it looks like a tunnel, right? 336 00:21:04,110 --> 00:21:05,110 So... 337 00:21:05,150 --> 00:21:07,160 So, check this out. So, when I do... 338 00:21:09,580 --> 00:21:13,200 Do you see? And now I'll show you. It's a slow mirror. I'm just going to... 339 00:21:13,540 --> 00:21:14,580 Hang on. Hang on. 340 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:19,920 Do you see? So, the... the time sequence... 341 00:21:20,670 --> 00:21:21,670 can be off. 342 00:21:22,340 --> 00:21:23,340 Here's on. 343 00:21:27,550 --> 00:21:28,590 And here's off. 344 00:21:28,930 --> 00:21:30,810 So, I like... I like the fact that... 345 00:21:31,510 --> 00:21:32,600 Oh, let me try again. 346 00:21:32,770 --> 00:21:34,980 That I can slow things down in the mirror. 347 00:21:37,730 --> 00:21:39,560 But obviously, the truth is that... 348 00:21:40,190 --> 00:21:42,030 it's actually not a round mirror. 349 00:21:43,150 --> 00:21:45,900 It's an ellipse mirror, and it's an experiment, like, 350 00:21:45,990 --> 00:21:47,160 with anamorphic shapes. 351 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:49,030 Like, if you look at an ellipse... 352 00:21:50,330 --> 00:21:51,330 like this, 353 00:21:51,450 --> 00:21:52,660 from a certain angle, 354 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:55,330 it appears to be circular. 355 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,290 This has been used very often, and I'm very interested. 356 00:21:58,370 --> 00:22:00,340 This is what I've been experimenting with. 357 00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:08,840 I'm very much interested in ideas about space and structure. 358 00:22:11,850 --> 00:22:15,180 There's always a mix between nature and design. 359 00:22:19,690 --> 00:22:22,320 I got interested in people like Buckminster Fuller. 360 00:22:22,770 --> 00:22:25,610 His geodesic dome has proved the most efficient means 361 00:22:25,690 --> 00:22:27,820 of enclosing space yet devised. 362 00:22:28,820 --> 00:22:30,490 And I came across, in Iceland, 363 00:22:30,570 --> 00:22:32,830 a guy who actually had known Buckminster Fuller. 364 00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:34,790 His name was Einar Thorsteinn. 365 00:22:35,660 --> 00:22:39,000 And I wanted to do a sculpture that was inspired by Buckminster Fuller. 366 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:43,290 And Einar said, "Oh, I know the mathematical formula for it." 367 00:22:44,630 --> 00:22:47,470 He came and worked here for 15 years in the studio. 368 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:51,470 So, that's how I got started working 369 00:22:51,550 --> 00:22:53,220 with scientists and architects. 370 00:22:54,930 --> 00:22:56,930 And in that way, it just grew very gradually, 371 00:22:57,020 --> 00:22:58,730 a little bit like my career. 372 00:23:03,770 --> 00:23:05,250 Just like with the natural phenomena, 373 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:09,900 my interest in geometry was also about experiencing the world. 374 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:15,330 So, in the studio... 375 00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,160 we work so much with geometry and... 376 00:23:19,500 --> 00:23:23,250 a number of spatial systems derived from nature. 377 00:23:23,330 --> 00:23:26,340 This is one of them, for instance. This is basalt columns. 378 00:23:27,880 --> 00:23:29,510 This... This basalt rock actually comes 379 00:23:29,590 --> 00:23:31,550 from having a volcano underneath a glacier, 380 00:23:31,630 --> 00:23:34,760 so the rapid cooling sort of crystallizes the rock. 381 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,560 When I was first invited to participate 382 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,230 in designing or shaping Harpa, 383 00:23:42,310 --> 00:23:45,860 which is the conference and concert hall in... in Reykjavík... 384 00:23:47,190 --> 00:23:50,110 the people involved wanted a reference to Iceland. 385 00:23:52,070 --> 00:23:55,910 We in the studio were working with geometry and nature and packing. 386 00:23:55,990 --> 00:23:59,120 And obviously, these basalt rocks and how they crystallize 387 00:23:59,830 --> 00:24:03,830 is a very great way of showing how nature organizes space. 388 00:24:06,290 --> 00:24:10,010 Einar Thorsteinn did some amazing research on five-fold symmetry. 389 00:24:10,630 --> 00:24:12,680 But more importantly, we also then developed it 390 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:15,050 into an architectural structural shape. 391 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:20,310 We built a space frame. 392 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:23,480 They're very stiff, they're very strong. 393 00:24:24,060 --> 00:24:26,480 And essentially, we used very little material 394 00:24:26,730 --> 00:24:28,650 to create a very strong facade, 395 00:24:28,820 --> 00:24:30,740 which holds up the roof, for instance. 396 00:24:32,570 --> 00:24:34,610 The shaping of the building was actually 397 00:24:34,700 --> 00:24:37,200 to kind of amplify the ephemeral qualities. 398 00:24:38,030 --> 00:24:40,080 The reason why tilting the facade, 399 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:41,790 just like... over, 400 00:24:41,870 --> 00:24:43,960 is because when the winter light comes, 401 00:24:44,500 --> 00:24:46,500 it... it works like a mirror and it just... 402 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,340 brings the sun onto this area here in the front, just a little bit. 403 00:24:53,260 --> 00:24:55,640 And the ceiling brings light into the space, 404 00:24:56,430 --> 00:24:58,430 bounces the light back onto the floor. 405 00:25:00,180 --> 00:25:02,560 And the idea was that you could sort of activate 406 00:25:03,230 --> 00:25:06,440 the view from the outside and make the building seem more alive. 407 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,940 We used something which started in mathematics, 408 00:25:12,150 --> 00:25:15,200 became about nature, which then became about engineering, 409 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:19,030 which then became about a skin for a concert and conference house. 410 00:25:20,540 --> 00:25:22,370 So, it was an amazing process. 411 00:25:26,460 --> 00:25:30,210 So, after Harpa, I said, "Let's make an architectural company." 412 00:25:33,510 --> 00:25:36,050 - Is this also steel? - Yes. And everything is open, 413 00:25:36,130 --> 00:25:38,680 everything is exposed to rain and water, 414 00:25:38,760 --> 00:25:41,310 so it's actually like parts of ships. 415 00:25:41,390 --> 00:25:43,140 That's so cool. I love it. 416 00:25:44,230 --> 00:25:46,640 There's actually the studio in the studio. 417 00:25:52,650 --> 00:25:56,490 So, architecture has become a part of what we do. 418 00:25:57,570 --> 00:26:00,120 And the building we just recently opened in Denmark 419 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:01,530 is called Fjordenhus, 420 00:26:01,620 --> 00:26:03,700 because it's a... it's a hus, it's a house, 421 00:26:03,790 --> 00:26:05,120 that stands in the fjord. 422 00:26:08,290 --> 00:26:10,960 It's a building that looks complex, 423 00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:13,880 but, actually, how it's built up is very simple. 424 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:15,590 So, this model here, 425 00:26:15,670 --> 00:26:19,840 the skin is actually penetrated by this negative volume here. 426 00:26:19,930 --> 00:26:22,310 So, you see, this one fits in here... 427 00:26:23,140 --> 00:26:25,100 and on this side here. 428 00:26:25,180 --> 00:26:26,560 And that organizes, then, 429 00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,310 these kind of parabolic openings, 430 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,560 and these kind of spaces are then used 431 00:26:31,650 --> 00:26:34,730 whether as balconies, as open spaces, or as offices. 432 00:26:37,150 --> 00:26:39,530 If you take a picture of a curved wall, 433 00:26:39,700 --> 00:26:41,030 it kind of becomes flat. 434 00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,200 But if you move, the curved wall changes perspective a lot, 435 00:26:45,830 --> 00:26:48,660 and everything becomes explicit. 436 00:27:00,260 --> 00:27:04,350 I think the overlap between art and architecture can make both better. 437 00:27:07,220 --> 00:27:10,060 These are the technical drawings for the LA gallery show. 438 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:13,150 So, we don't mind having a mirror here on the wall, 439 00:27:13,230 --> 00:27:14,860 and then, it ends with the... 440 00:27:14,940 --> 00:27:18,030 Yeah, but maybe we just move it... Now we just move it over a little bit. 441 00:27:18,110 --> 00:27:19,700 Yeah. So, let's put the work... 442 00:27:19,990 --> 00:27:20,990 in the middle. 443 00:27:22,660 --> 00:27:24,620 Let's try it. This one we might not need, 444 00:27:24,700 --> 00:27:27,450 because it's just much nicer, the compass in this space alone, 445 00:27:27,540 --> 00:27:28,700 and then this and this. 446 00:27:28,950 --> 00:27:30,620 Okay, great. So, that's it then. 447 00:27:33,250 --> 00:27:34,380 I'll just grab my pen. 448 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,710 I was always interested in perception. 449 00:27:42,390 --> 00:27:44,800 There's plenty of examples, like, historically speaking, 450 00:27:44,890 --> 00:27:47,390 of how we choose to use our eyes. 451 00:27:50,020 --> 00:27:51,390 The first mirrors in the world 452 00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,230 were made of black obsidian. 453 00:27:53,310 --> 00:27:55,230 Then people would go through the parks, 454 00:27:55,310 --> 00:27:58,070 and in the mirror, they would see the back. 455 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,450 You have the future in front of you, but if you hold up a little mirror, 456 00:28:02,530 --> 00:28:05,570 you can see where you came from, you can see the past. 457 00:28:08,870 --> 00:28:10,620 When I was a younger artist, 458 00:28:11,290 --> 00:28:13,120 I'm still relatively young, right? 459 00:28:13,210 --> 00:28:14,710 But when I was a younger artist, 460 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:18,000 I moved from Denmark to Germany. 461 00:28:20,340 --> 00:28:23,720 And I wouldn't say I was easygoing, because I literally gave up everything... 462 00:28:24,930 --> 00:28:26,510 to pursue what I wanted to do. 463 00:28:30,730 --> 00:28:33,270 Though the new year began here in the two Germanys 464 00:28:33,350 --> 00:28:37,060 with these remarkable sights, unthinkable such a short time ago. 465 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,610 It was in '89... 466 00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:43,400 The sledge... when it went up. 467 00:28:43,490 --> 00:28:45,410 The Berlin Wall came down. 468 00:28:47,660 --> 00:28:49,700 Even the East Germans seemed exhilarated... 469 00:28:49,790 --> 00:28:53,540 Me and a fellow student, we rented a car and we drove to Berlin. 470 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:03,300 And suddenly, you just see all these people from East coming through. 471 00:29:15,770 --> 00:29:16,900 It was very touching. 472 00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,000 I mean, it was difficult to understand... 473 00:29:21,070 --> 00:29:23,990 to be honest, the scope of what we were actually seeing. 474 00:29:28,820 --> 00:29:33,040 How do I make what is abstract tangible? 475 00:29:34,830 --> 00:29:37,330 It's the process of narrowing it down to the bone. 476 00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:42,710 But when I moved to Germany, 477 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:46,630 I thought I was going out into the world to be an artist like everybody else. 478 00:29:47,090 --> 00:29:48,260 But they were so good, 479 00:29:48,340 --> 00:29:49,930 and I was like, "Oh... 480 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:51,890 I'm never gonna make it." 481 00:29:53,020 --> 00:29:55,390 I said, "If I'm gonna somehow say something, 482 00:29:55,890 --> 00:29:57,230 I better be myself." 483 00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:12,280 I wanted to hand over the responsibility for experiencing the artwork 484 00:30:12,620 --> 00:30:13,830 to the participant. 485 00:30:21,290 --> 00:30:24,170 A reality projector is a very large space 486 00:30:24,260 --> 00:30:26,010 and has a kind of balcony you enter here. 487 00:30:26,090 --> 00:30:28,180 So, this is a person in the space, right? 488 00:30:28,510 --> 00:30:31,390 And in the space, the ceiling was these enormous, 489 00:30:31,470 --> 00:30:33,350 uh, triangulated trusses. 490 00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,060 So, I thought, "Maybe it would be possible 491 00:30:38,140 --> 00:30:41,610 to expose the structure that holds up the ceiling." 492 00:30:43,110 --> 00:30:45,990 We started putting up lamps up here. 493 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:48,110 And then you would have a shadow, 494 00:30:48,780 --> 00:30:52,200 which essentially is the beam from the ceiling. 495 00:30:53,410 --> 00:30:55,410 And it would move if we move the light. 496 00:30:55,790 --> 00:30:56,790 So that was kind of nice. 497 00:30:56,870 --> 00:30:59,710 And if we'd have two lights that moved in different directions, 498 00:30:59,790 --> 00:31:02,380 the shadows moved... Suddenly, there was kind of a movie. 499 00:31:07,170 --> 00:31:10,550 His temptation to integrate the architecture, 500 00:31:10,630 --> 00:31:13,850 I think is a very intelligent approach 501 00:31:13,930 --> 00:31:16,310 and maximizes the possibility. 502 00:31:22,190 --> 00:31:24,820 You see, don't forget this is a person here, right? 503 00:31:24,900 --> 00:31:27,480 Hello. This is a little person. 504 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,150 So, this was enormous. 505 00:31:30,570 --> 00:31:32,030 It was very abstract. 506 00:31:34,740 --> 00:31:38,120 There's something very dreamy to see huge shadows moving. 507 00:31:40,500 --> 00:31:42,630 Something very sort of meditative. 508 00:31:45,380 --> 00:31:47,460 And I thought maybe we should add sound. 509 00:31:58,720 --> 00:32:02,560 My artist friend Yanchi recorded the delivery of a piano 510 00:32:03,100 --> 00:32:05,440 and the sound of the construction of a piano. 511 00:32:10,190 --> 00:32:11,400 Some people saw... 512 00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:13,910 city cranes, a harbor, 513 00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:15,570 modern systems. 514 00:32:16,580 --> 00:32:19,580 And some people saw abstract paintings, and color films, 515 00:32:19,660 --> 00:32:21,750 and more like psychedelic sort of stuff. 516 00:32:26,210 --> 00:32:29,460 Underneath this idea of empowering the spectator, 517 00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,170 there is something which is very fundamental. 518 00:32:34,180 --> 00:32:37,890 Museums make huge explanations to make sure that people get it, 519 00:32:38,140 --> 00:32:40,390 but you sometimes end up with a feeling where, 520 00:32:40,890 --> 00:32:44,400 "I must be really stupid since they have to over-explain everything." 521 00:32:47,190 --> 00:32:50,400 So, when I say the viewer of a work of art 522 00:32:50,690 --> 00:32:53,740 is smart enough to co-produce the narrative, 523 00:32:54,070 --> 00:32:57,700 it gives the viewer the sense of saying, "I'm actually good enough." 524 00:33:05,210 --> 00:33:08,170 When I was small, I very much liked to draw. 525 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:13,590 And my father would typically just 526 00:33:13,670 --> 00:33:16,930 tell me to do some doodles on the paper, just like kind of... 527 00:33:17,010 --> 00:33:19,760 you know, like, just like swing the pen around on the paper 528 00:33:19,850 --> 00:33:22,180 and then just fill out the fields. 529 00:33:23,430 --> 00:33:26,310 Of course, it'd just be abstract. It's just an abstract drawing. 530 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,070 So, the exercise is actually the imagination, 531 00:33:31,150 --> 00:33:32,320 or the, you know, fantasy, 532 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:34,700 and to sort of see things that are invisible. 533 00:33:34,780 --> 00:33:37,320 So, let me just show you the cat here. 534 00:33:37,740 --> 00:33:39,030 There's an eye here. 535 00:33:40,370 --> 00:33:42,040 There's another eye here. 536 00:33:42,660 --> 00:33:45,370 Maybe this is, you know, the cat nose. 537 00:33:45,750 --> 00:33:47,210 Kind of the other way around. 538 00:33:47,420 --> 00:33:48,420 That's fine. 539 00:33:48,540 --> 00:33:50,750 Then we have... I can put in... 540 00:33:52,250 --> 00:33:55,340 Ah, there's an ear here, there's another ear here, yeah? 541 00:33:56,470 --> 00:33:58,640 So, see? So, gradually, my cat... 542 00:33:59,260 --> 00:34:00,760 has a kind of a leonine. 543 00:34:02,850 --> 00:34:06,440 When I talk to kids about, you know, "Can you draw a car or something?” 544 00:34:06,940 --> 00:34:09,650 I really try to emphasize it's not really about the car. 545 00:34:09,730 --> 00:34:11,020 It's more about, "You have... 546 00:34:11,110 --> 00:34:13,530 Do you have the fantasy to actually see the car?" 547 00:34:14,900 --> 00:34:15,900 Let's go on. 548 00:34:17,650 --> 00:34:20,700 Cheers. It's just that I didn't do that since I was a child. 549 00:34:25,290 --> 00:34:26,790 So, as my studio evolved, 550 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,420 I also started working more with advocacy groups. 551 00:34:31,540 --> 00:34:34,000 And the studio today actually is... is a kind of a mix 552 00:34:34,090 --> 00:34:36,220 between the normal artwork, 553 00:34:36,300 --> 00:34:39,180 but we're also involved with the politics somehow. 554 00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:42,350 Turning thinking into doing. 555 00:34:47,100 --> 00:34:48,890 So, I thought I should see 556 00:34:48,980 --> 00:34:52,150 if what I have learned in art could be applied onto, for instance, 557 00:34:52,230 --> 00:34:53,860 a kind of a more sort of, um... 558 00:34:53,940 --> 00:34:55,280 advocacy project. 559 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,200 And this is how the project Ice Watch came along. 560 00:35:03,080 --> 00:35:05,660 How do we make the climate explicit 561 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,120 and turn thinking into doing? 562 00:35:10,250 --> 00:35:12,880 And the Ice Watch project is very straightforward. 563 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:15,800 It's glacial ice from Greenland, 564 00:35:16,170 --> 00:35:18,420 from the glacier that is disappearing, 565 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:19,840 put on the street. 566 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:33,810 People walk up to it and... 567 00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:35,940 see it, listen to it, touch it. 568 00:35:37,780 --> 00:35:39,860 This is what is melting and disappearing, 569 00:35:39,950 --> 00:35:41,910 and it was melting right then. Then, of course... 570 00:35:42,870 --> 00:35:44,530 this is what we're talking about. 571 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,500 Then they would put their hand on it and they go, 572 00:35:50,580 --> 00:35:51,790 "It's cold." 573 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:55,880 And of course everybody knows ice is cold because it's ice, right? 574 00:35:55,960 --> 00:35:59,630 But behavioral change is much more emotional. 575 00:36:04,340 --> 00:36:05,350 It's so simple... 576 00:36:06,510 --> 00:36:09,020 but that simplicity is deceptive. 577 00:36:09,980 --> 00:36:13,350 Because it's going to disappear, and you know it's gonna disappear. 578 00:36:15,190 --> 00:36:17,020 That he could create something so beautiful 579 00:36:17,110 --> 00:36:18,940 that would conjure that unthinkable thought 580 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,400 is the mark of a truly great artist. 581 00:36:26,780 --> 00:36:28,660 This is such a great view down here. 582 00:36:28,740 --> 00:36:29,950 Oh, yeah. 583 00:36:34,370 --> 00:36:35,370 It is. 584 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,000 When I was here half a life ago, 585 00:36:39,090 --> 00:36:40,630 there was, um, 586 00:36:40,710 --> 00:36:42,220 you know, ice coming down, 587 00:36:42,300 --> 00:36:45,930 moving down this water here, as I remember it. Yeah. 588 00:36:46,010 --> 00:36:48,180 - It... It broke off? - Yes, yes, yes. 589 00:36:48,260 --> 00:36:50,770 - It did. But there is still beauty. - Yeah. Yeah. 590 00:36:50,850 --> 00:36:54,560 You know, we look at this, and I think the acknowledgment of that 591 00:36:55,230 --> 00:36:58,650 is important to keep prosperous and hopeful. 592 00:36:58,730 --> 00:36:59,570 Yeah. 593 00:36:59,650 --> 00:37:01,030 That piece of ice... 594 00:37:01,110 --> 00:37:02,610 - Maybe we can grab that. - Yeah. 595 00:37:02,950 --> 00:37:05,240 - Let's try it. Yeah. - Let's see if we can grab that ice. 596 00:37:08,910 --> 00:37:09,990 We saved it. 597 00:37:10,830 --> 00:37:12,080 So... 598 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:14,080 Now we just need a freezer. 599 00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:16,880 - Yeah, a big one. - So... 600 00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:18,840 - That's a nice work of art. - It is. 601 00:37:18,920 --> 00:37:21,340 - Or a nice poem, for that matter. - Yeah. 602 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:23,920 Yeah. 603 00:37:23,970 --> 00:37:26,010 - So, are these bubbles? - Yeah. 604 00:37:26,090 --> 00:37:28,760 So, the air in the bubble, when it comes out, 605 00:37:28,930 --> 00:37:31,140 it's the air from 5,000 years ago. 606 00:37:31,220 --> 00:37:33,520 I mean, what is beautiful is that as it actually melts... 607 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:34,810 - Yeah. - It kind of pops. 608 00:37:34,890 --> 00:37:35,730 Yeah. 609 00:37:35,810 --> 00:37:38,610 So, if we would be very quiet and sit and wait a little bit, 610 00:37:38,940 --> 00:37:40,770 the ice would start speaking to us. 611 00:37:40,860 --> 00:37:42,400 It would pop like popcorn. 612 00:37:43,190 --> 00:37:46,200 So, it's not, like, disappearing, it's actually arriving. 613 00:37:46,660 --> 00:37:48,450 It's about being... being present. 614 00:37:51,240 --> 00:37:54,830 If we want to change something about the climate, it needs to be made explicit, 615 00:37:54,910 --> 00:37:56,250 it needs to be physical. 616 00:37:56,330 --> 00:38:00,210 And this is what culture is, right? Culture is, to a large extent, physical. 617 00:38:00,540 --> 00:38:03,420 It's... It's... It's stuff out in the world. 618 00:38:07,930 --> 00:38:09,680 I have worked so much with light. 619 00:38:11,260 --> 00:38:13,720 Light is so fundamental to everything, right? 620 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:19,900 As I also started traveling, I realized that... 621 00:38:20,730 --> 00:38:22,980 every eighth person in the world 622 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,740 does not have access to energy. Like, to light. 623 00:38:28,240 --> 00:38:30,070 So, this is actually the little sun. 624 00:38:30,660 --> 00:38:33,490 And there's a solar panel here on the back, so... 625 00:38:34,160 --> 00:38:36,160 when I hold it up like that, I'm actually charging, 626 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:37,910 then I have light for the whole evening. 627 00:38:38,250 --> 00:38:41,000 Now, I have sustainable energy right here in the palm of my hand, 628 00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:43,750 and I... I call that holding hands with the sun. 629 00:38:46,720 --> 00:38:49,010 It's about the right to have access to light. 630 00:38:49,260 --> 00:38:51,640 No one will ever have to sit in darkness. 631 00:38:54,140 --> 00:38:57,770 We sell this at a higher price, knowing museum stores are online. 632 00:38:58,140 --> 00:39:02,810 And the profit from that is then driving lamps into off-grid areas. 633 00:39:04,320 --> 00:39:05,360 In those areas, 634 00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,570 you would normally buy 100 milliliters of kerosene a week. 635 00:39:08,650 --> 00:39:11,700 That is money which was then spent on something else. 636 00:39:11,780 --> 00:39:15,240 It went into the economy. It didn't go out and into the oil industry. 637 00:39:24,500 --> 00:39:26,960 It's important to talk about the climate 638 00:39:27,340 --> 00:39:30,300 in a language that is not always about doom and gloom. 639 00:39:31,130 --> 00:39:34,260 It's very important to design things that has a positive narrative. 640 00:39:39,180 --> 00:39:42,480 You can turn thinking into doing. You can. 641 00:40:04,130 --> 00:40:07,960 The gallery that I work with has opened up a space here in Los Angeles and... 642 00:40:08,460 --> 00:40:11,180 it's exciting for me because this is my first show here in this space 643 00:40:11,260 --> 00:40:13,180 and the first time I show these works. 644 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:21,480 I love it. 645 00:40:21,850 --> 00:40:23,400 This has turned out amazing. 646 00:40:23,770 --> 00:40:27,400 Somehow, I don't remember it looking like this in the studio. 647 00:40:32,860 --> 00:40:36,120 It's good to make art with mirrors, so I can check my hair. 648 00:40:58,850 --> 00:41:01,810 Art is the world's ability 649 00:41:02,270 --> 00:41:06,190 to investigate and have an intimate relationship with itself. 650 00:41:08,570 --> 00:41:12,490 Gerhard Richter, the German painter, said, "Art is the highest form of hope." 651 00:41:16,950 --> 00:41:20,410 At the bottom of my heart, I love making art. 652 00:41:29,590 --> 00:41:31,960 So, why are you watching this episode? 653 00:41:32,170 --> 00:41:33,760 I mean, I'm very happy you are, 654 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:36,720 but it's also important that you think about yourself, right? 655 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:38,300 What is in it for you? 656 00:41:39,430 --> 00:41:41,100 What are you actually doing here? 657 00:41:42,850 --> 00:41:46,140 It's about the ability to see something. 658 00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:54,110 It's incredibly important that we do not take our surroundings for granted. 659 00:41:56,110 --> 00:41:59,160 To realize I can see more, should I make the effort. 660 00:42:03,410 --> 00:42:04,250 For instance, 661 00:42:04,330 --> 00:42:06,710 depending on where you are in the world, 662 00:42:07,210 --> 00:42:09,290 the quality of the daylight is very different. 663 00:42:11,380 --> 00:42:13,340 This is how the light looks in Berlin. 664 00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:18,300 So, this is the amazing light here in Los Angeles. 665 00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,560 It's, of course, very famous, just like the traffic is. 666 00:42:21,640 --> 00:42:23,520 We're standing on the street... 667 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:24,680 in front of the gallery. 668 00:42:27,810 --> 00:42:30,810 This is the color of the daylight here in Iceland, 669 00:42:30,900 --> 00:42:32,770 right... right outside of my studio. 670 00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:35,280 Even what we take for granted, such as, 671 00:42:35,860 --> 00:42:37,360 "Oh, this is just sunlight," 672 00:42:37,450 --> 00:42:38,820 is actually very different. 673 00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:10,150 Once you see that reality is actually relative... 674 00:43:11,650 --> 00:43:14,320 it is more likely to also change. 675 00:43:16,990 --> 00:43:18,950 So, north is exactly over there. 676 00:43:20,660 --> 00:43:22,120 Berlin, where my studio is... 677 00:43:22,870 --> 00:43:23,700 Right? 678 00:43:23,780 --> 00:43:25,660 Is there. 679 00:43:27,950 --> 00:43:30,370 So, we are not lost after all.