Multiple shadow house by Olafur Eliasson

On view through Oct. 9, 2017, at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, “Multiple Shadow House”. In this exhibition, water and light are among the key components of the installations. Olafur Eliasson plays incredibly well with weather elements, optical illusions and scientific principles. Thanks to an exceptional process, your body will be the center of the artist creation. Instead of observing, each visitor completes the artwork and becomes a major element of it.

The interactive exhibition features a selection of the artist’s previous works including the “Big Bang Fountain,” 2014, and the “Multiple Shadow House,” 2010. Eliasson uses water and light as the primary elements for creating the installations. The show opens with the “Big Bang Fountain,” 2014, an ephemeral sequential water sculpture created by a series of light flashes from a strobe light. The show then moves into its namesake installation—“Multiple Shadow House”—a room illuminated using several light projectors, each of which cast a range of colors over the so-called “walls,” which are in fact projection screens. The combination of the projected light sources creates a backdrop of white light, and as visitors step into the room and block the light sources, their bodies’ shadows are projected onto the walls.

Eliasson is known for the intangible nature of his immersive works. “The play of light, optical illusions, scientific principles, and weather elements are the key components of his installations.”

“When you encounter your own shadow on the wall, it is undeniable evidence of your presence in that space. It is a consequence of your being there. If, however, you find yourself following the shadow instead, unexpected things begin to happen. The shadow asks you to move differently. You become activated, so to speak, by your own shadow, so that it is no longer a consequence of your presence, but rather you are the consequence of the shadow’s presence. In a reversal of perspective and a loosening of the social strictures we have become accustomed to move and navigate with in, your shadow suggests actions and movements that are outside of the conventional ways of moving within an exhibition space. If you follow it closely to where it might lead you, you might even start to dance.”

Olafur Eliasson

Over the course of this exhibit, the MAC is also organizing a series of Gallery Talks: art historian Anja Bock on Thursday, August 10 (in English), and artist Michel de Broin on Wednesday, September 13 (in French).