Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is about to display to the world one of the most important public art projects that the city of New York has ever hosted. It is “The New York City Waterfalls”, the extraordinary series of four waterfalls that will rise about 36 metres above the water of the Big Apple’s bay: realized in full respect of the environment and dislocated in four points facing the East River, in Lower Manhattan, under the Brooklyn bridge anchorage and on the northern coast of the Governor’s Island. An extremely impressive work by the European artist, who received the entire budget of 15 million dollars by the Public Art Fund, a private non-profit foundation, which in past years sponsored also “Sky Mirror” by Anish Kapoor and “Puppy” by Jeff Koons, both installed at the Rockefeller Centre.
The Public Art Fund has been for over thirty years New York City’s main sponsor for exhibitions, installations and projects of various artists realized in public places. The Waterfalls are the latest expression of this tradition, in the constant research for artists that can extend the limits of public art in every possible form of expression to highlight the city’s vitality and effervescence.
“Observe water in a different way” is the artistic message that Olafur Eliasson reveals before the prospects of his public sculptures: three months (from 26th June to 13th October 2008) of artificial waterfalls that will shape the outlines of the Brooklyn Bridge and offer a fine-art restyling. The waterfalls will be illuminated also at night, the water will fall from colossal scaffoldings, while eco-pumps and ecological LED lights will guarantee a low energetic impact. So low that even the environmentalist associations of New York have approved this project, as the ecological impact of the project will be minimal.
According to the media, only someone like Olafur Eliasson could get everyone to agree. In fifteen years of career, the forty-one-year-old artist has become famous thanks to his ecological sculptures that draw inspiration from nature and manipulate the visual perception of the spectator to communicate an urgent and often dramatic message about the future of the planet and its resources that are at risk. A strong environmentalist imprint characterized the work that gave him worldwide popularity: “The Weather Project” dated from 2003, a giant artificial sun installed inside the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London. Essentially made of light, mirrors and mist, the surrounding environment gave a higher sensorial experience, unforgettable for most spectators. In another work, “Green River” from 2000, the artist poured a green non-toxic dye into a river in Stockholm. And in a previous work, “Beauty” from 1993, he was able to create a rainbow inside a gallery, by projecting lights across a fine mist of water.
Eliasson is a sculptor who is particularly appreciated and known in the boudoirs of International contemporary art. He is one of the most famous artists of his generation, interested mainly in investigating the boundaries between art, science and natural phenomena.
The only problem related to his new project? “Soon the city will be literally invaded by his team”, answers the “New York Sun”, which points out how Olafur Eliasson is part of “an exclusive group of contemporary artists who work almost on a Renaissance scale”. In an interview released in 2006 to the magazine “New Yorker”, the artist himself revealed that he made use of “a 1400-square-metre studio set in an ex railway deposit in East Berlin where he availed himself of more than 40 assistants, including mathematicians, architects, electricians and sound technicians”.
As we have seen in previous years, public art in one of New York’s great traditions. Everyone will remember the wonderful work “The Gates”, the outdoor sculpture of poles and orange fabrics, five metres high and 37 kilometres long, realized by Christo and displayed from 12th to 27th February 2005 in the heart of Central Park. With this sensational installation the Bulgarian artist had fetched about 254 million dollars to the city coffers. According to the estimates calculated by mayor Bloomberg, who claims that public art brings tourism and millions of dollars to the economy of the city, the four waterfalls will inject more than 55 million dollars into New York City’s funds.
(translated by Giorgina Arcuri)