Olafur Eliasson Gets Vulnerable with ‘OPEN’ at MOCA

‘How do we see, how do we experience, what are the limits of my own seeing?’ These questions are the basis of Olafur Eliasson’s enveloping new exhibition, ‘OPEN’, at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles, as he explains in this video. Part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide, ‘OPEN’ seeks to change viewers’ perception of art and what it means to experience it.

Known for landmark installations such as ‘The weather project’ (2003), which turned the vast Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern into an artificial meteorological environment, Eliasson often uses his work to extend concepts of art and its institutions. Puncturing holes in MOCA’s roof, Eliasson lets in the inspiring radiance of southern California and as a symbolic gesture of institutional porosity: ‘We are open,’ he explains. ‘We are also open to YOU.’

This relationship of the visitor to the exhibit is central to ‘OPEN’. Since the works require the presence of the visitor to complete them, ‘OPEN’ aims to restore the visitor’s sense of agency, giving new relations to ‘hyperobjects’, such as the climate crisis (something that has occupied Eliasson’s recent work), and ‘making the abstract palpable’, in his words.

‘If you are less defensive,’ says Eliasson, ‘you become more vulnerable.’

‘Olafur Eliasson: OPEN’ is on view at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles through 6 July 2025. It is one of more than 70 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide.

‘Olafur Eliasson: OPEN’ is organised by José Luis Blondet, Senior Curator, and Rebecca Lowery, Associate Curator, with Emilia Nicholson-Fajardo, Curatorial Assistant, and Anastasia Kahn, former Curatorial Assistant, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.