Olafur Eliasson Gives Versailles a Surreal Aura

He brought the sun inside the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in 2003 and made Manhattan and Brooklyn look surreal in 2008 with four huge waterfalls. For 2016, renowned artist Olafur Eliasson transforms the Palace of Versailles into a surreal wonderland. The outdoor and indoor installations allow visitors to experience the famous landmark in a completely different way. “The Versailles that I have been dreaming up is a place that empowers everyone. It invites visitors to take control of the authorship of their experience instead of simply consuming and being dazzled by the grandeur.” says the artist.

The outdoor artworks include ‘Waterfall’, an impressive installation that seems suspended in mid-air, the ‘Fog Assembly’ mist garden, and the ‘Glacial Rock Flour Garden’, a fountain remodeled into an arid area covered with a layer of cracked earth. Inside, a series of installations accentuate the surreal and conceptual aspects of the project. Here, mirrors and light are used together to bring a magical space to life, a place where visitors are faced with their own reflection as they walk around the rooms. ‘The Gaze of Versailles’ transforms the viewed into viewer and vice versa, while ‘The Curious Museum’ creates a parallel world through the use of a large hidden mirror. Curated by Alfred Pacquement, the Olafur Eliasson exhibition will be on display until October 30th, 2016. If you’re planning a trip to France, make sure you visit, as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see Eliasson’s Versailles. Photos by Anders Sune Berg.