A museum flooded with water? That usually means that something has gone seriously wrong. Not so at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. The flooding of the museum is part of the installation called "Life" by the artist Olafur Eliasson.
Eliasson has removed the glass wall of the Renzo Piano-designed building (with the architect’s blessing) and let the feature pond into the museum. The water is dyed a fluorescent green using uranine, an organic dye and filled with various pond plants, like water lilies, shell flowers, water ferns and many others.
Why did he do this? You might ask. To start understanding the artist's intentions, here some quotes from Olafur Eliasson about his installation:
«Why don’t we invite everyone to the show? Let’s invite the planet -plants and various species.»
«Life,my artwork, and the Fondation Beyeler are entangled with the surrounding park, the urban landscape, and the planet, and they come to life through everything and everyone that meet up in it.»
«Beyond just opening a door, I decided to remove the structural boundaries that keep the outside out of the institution.»
«When we recognise that our lives are inextricably entangled with our surroundings and with structures and systems that extend far beyond our local context, we learn, I believe, that we are all vulnerable and not fully in control. We act and interact in situations defined by uncertainty and unclear outcomes.»
«Together with the museum, I am giving up control over the artwork, so to speak, handing it over to human and non-human visitors, to plants, microorganisms, the weather, the climate -many of these elements that museums usually work very hard to keep out. Instead, we are trying to welcome everyone and everything in.»
You can find the complete artist statement here (well worth to read): olafureliasson...
During that visit, my emotions ran through a wide spectrum. At first confused about the broken conventions of architecture and space (especially since i was walking through the same rooms on solid floor just a couple months ago to see a Edward Hopper exhibition).
Then amazed (why actually?) how life - in the form of water, plants and ducks - so easily defies the limits set by humans.
And in the end, a feeling of liberation and peacefulness.
While the installation is of course photographically interesting and you can make nice images, it is mainly a place that you should experience with all your senses and not just through the lens of a camera.
I will definitely visit the museum again, preferably at night, when it is illuminated with blue, fluorescent light. I still have to decide whether my camera bag will come along or not.
Thank you for watching!
My Website: thomasrhinow.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music:
- Memoir of Solitude by Borrtex
- Desire by Borrtex
- Process by Borrtex
- Feeling by Borrtex
- Yodelling Walmart Kid by Drake Stafford
All found on freemusicarchi...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------