Almost annually since 2006, Studio Olafur Eliasson has hosted a get-together called Life is space (formerly Life in space). For this day-long event, scientists, artists, scholars, dancers, theorists, spatial practitioners, and movement experts come together with the Institut für Raumexperimente participants and the studio team to share, discuss, present, and experiment. These meetings are only loosely planned in advance and are largely left to intuition and serendipity.
Life Is Space: Hildur Guðnadóttir makes a drawing with her cello, 2011
The book documenting this event was made in collaboration with Graphic Thought Facility and Peter Saville, the publication employs a special randomisation principle to make each book in this limited edition a unique object. More about the book here
Life Is Space: Eric Ellingsen performs two poems, 2011
Life is space: Ann Lislegaard presents Time Machine, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pDE4VX_9Kk
In memory of John Berger: Watch or re-watch his seminal Ways of Seeing, 1972
I grew up in solitude and silence, 1991
Inspirational project: Ice stupa artificial glaciers by Sunam Wangchuk
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Artificial glaciers shaped like "stupas", whose shape keeps them frozen until spring, when water in the Himalayas become sparse because of retrieving glaciers. Architect Sunam Wangchuk first began constructing the ice stupas in Ladakh, and is now collaborating with architects and glaciologist to take the idea to other places. Here he is working with a Swiss team, including landscape architect Günther Vogt.
The global impact of Little Sun
Rainbow assembly, 2016, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul - A film by SHIMURAbros
After the solstice today, the days will be longer, nights shorter! The Domadalur daylight series (north), 2006
The studio has had a close collaboration with Glashütte Lamberts for many years. For a new work a special kind of green glass was handcrafted by incorporating glacial rock flour into the raw material
Glacial ice melting within a concrete block
"For the Ilulissat Icefjord Park, experiments with ice were essential to the design process. We brought 1500 kilograms of ice from Greenland into our studio, transported in a refrigerated container. We did tests with concrete to explore the design options available to us when using ice as formwork for concrete. The idea for the project was to take ice from the fjord and cast a block of concrete around it. Then, after the ice melted, the visitors would be standing in the space previously occupied by the ice. This would provide an experience of seeing and sensing things that do not otherwise lend themselves to being seen and discovered. It’s impossible to get any closer to the ice than this. The experience of negative space familiar from caves or churches. This connection between the space itself and the material from which it was created is extraordinary. The form is imbued with the memory of the ice."
Sebastian Behmann, co-founder of Studio Other Spaces, part of upcoming interview in Magazine GAM 13
Architecture shaped by climate change - casting glacial ice in concrete
Studio Other Spaces' proposal for Ilulissat Icefjord Park, Greenland
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The Ilulissat Icefjord Park uses the melting of ice to shape space. Studio Other Spaces has created a unique design strategy where ice is at once the formwork of a concrete structure and the focal point of the resulting space. For the Ilulissat Icefjord Park, Studio Other Spaces uses naturally calved icebergs harvested directly from the nearby ice fjord to create an exhibition building, called the Ice Void, which harbours in its walls the memory of the ice that was used to shape it. Together with the Ice Void, and linked to it outdoors by a 360-degree path, the Sun Cone building defines the Icefjord Park. The light glass structure of the Sun Cone positions the visitor centre directly in the landscape and offers guests a spectacular panoramic view of the surroundings and the Arctic sun. The park helps make the overwhelming experience of visiting the ice fjord comprehensible – providing visitors with a scale for contemplating and relating to the awe-inspiring ice fjord.
Encounters with Ice Watch. Featuring dancers from Paris Opera Ballet and Company Wayne McGregor
More about the Ice Watch project here: www.icewatchparis.com