Year: 2014
Material/Technique: Granite "Kuru Grey", Finland
Dimensions: 92 x 1040 x 1040 cm
Oscillation bench is integrated into the park designed for Novartis by landscape architect Günther Vogt, next to the building by Herzog & de Meuron. What at first glance appears as a puzzling, abstract shape reveals itself upon further study to be a circular bench and table. Organic in form, the artwork suggests a three-dimensional representation of a sound wave or a water ripple, radiating out from the source – one imagines – at the center of the work. There, the drop recoils to form a table that is slightly concave so that rain and melting snows remain for a while, as they do in the valleys of the ripples around the seating, where they reflect the sky and the world.
As much sculpture as it is meeting place, the bench manifests an aesthetic rooted equally in the work’s form as in its function. Its natural contours engage the human body, inviting visitors to linger at the site, facilitating chance encounters. Oscillation bench offers a place for reflection and the exchange of thoughts.
The work’s formal language reflects the ripple effect of an idea and its potential to turn thinking into doing, thus producing reality.
An incision in the sculpture provides access to the round, two-sided bench with room enough for about 40 people, some sitting on the inside, others on the outside: 'Oscillation bench' is not only a work of art; it is also an object of use. It forms an open space, a place of encounter, a place to exchange ideas without a hierarchical seating arrangement, in which mental and affective impulses can surface and make metaphorical waves.
Artist
Ólafur Eliasson is a Conceptual Danish-Icelandic artist concerned with sensorial experience and perception. He is best known for his large-scale sculptures and installations that adopt elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to engage with the viewer’s perception of space.
Born on February 5, 1967 in Copenhagen, Denmark to Icelandic parents, Eliasson grew up in the city and went on to study at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts from 1989–1995. After graduating, he established his gigantic multi-disciplinary studio and laboratory in Berlin, in a converted beer brewery. With a staff of approximately 100 people, he works on numerous and often extremely complex projects located all over the world.
In 2016, Eliasson was invited to create a network of installations at the Palace of Versailles in France. He currently lives and works between Copenhagen, Denmark and Berlin, Germany. The artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Kunstmuseum Basel, among others.