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Olafur Eliasson's Immersive Retrospective 'In Real Life' Opens at Guggenheim Bilbao

exhibition · 2026-04-27

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is showcasing 'In Real Life', a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Olafur Eliasson, who was born in Copenhagen in 1967. This exhibit, curated by Lucía Aguirre and Mark Godfrey, began on an unspecified date in 2020 and includes approximately thirty works spanning Eliasson's three-decade career. Influenced by the architecture of Frank Gehry, notable installations consist of 'Your encertain shadow, color' (2010), 'Waterfall' (2019), 'Your atmospheric colour atlas' (2009), 'Your Spiral View' (2002), 'Room for one color' (1997), 'Beauty' (1993), and 'Model Room' (2003). Since 2019, Eliasson has served as a UN Goodwill Ambassador for sustainable development and has initiated social projects such as 'The Sun Light' (2012) and 'The Green Light'. This article was authored by Federica Lonati and appeared in Artribune.

Key facts

  • Exhibition 'In Real Life' at Guggenheim Bilbao features about 30 works from 30 years of Olafur Eliasson's career.
  • Curated by Lucía Aguirre and Mark Godfrey; previously shown at Tate Modern London in summer 2019.
  • Museum architecture by Frank Gehry influenced the installation.
  • Works include 'Waterfall' (2019), an 11-meter outdoor cascade; 'Your atmospheric colour atlas' (2009), a fog room; 'Model Room' (2003) with 450 maquettes.
  • Eliasson's Berlin studio employs about 100 collaborators from diverse fields.
  • Eliasson was named UN Goodwill Ambassador for sustainable development in 2019.
  • Social projects include 'The Sun Light', 'The Green Light' (with TBA21), and 'SammanLänkad' (with IKEA).
  • Article by Federica Lonati published on Artribune.

Entities

Artists

  • Olafur Eliasson
  • Frank Gehry
  • Federica Lonati
  • Lucía Aguirre
  • Mark Godfrey
  • Francesca Thyssen

Institutions

  • Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
  • Tate Modern
  • TBA21
  • IKEA
  • United Nations
  • Artribune
  • neugerriemschneider
  • Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

Locations

  • Copenhagen
  • Berlin
  • Bilbao
  • Spain
  • London
  • United Kingdom
  • Paris
  • Greenland
  • New York
  • Los Angeles

Sources