Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life

An illustrated guide to the work of world-renowned installation artist Olafur Eliasson

Conceived as an illustrated a “field guide” to the work of Danish artist Olafur Eliasson (b. 1967), this stunningly produced book features a substantial conversation between the artist and Tate curator Mark Godfrey, as well as a collection of short dialogues with a strikingly varied range of people working both inside and outside the arts—from anthropology, economics, political science, and biology to architecture and urbanism, dance, music, and food.

Eliasson builds such conversations into his daily life and work. They help him not only to understand other people’s unique fields of knowledge, but also to ask, “What does my understanding of your knowledge do to my understanding of the world?” The interweaving of these texts with stunning photography of his remarkable and immersive works provides an insight into what Eliasson calls his ongoing aim of “reaching out into the world.”