Yesterday was a holiday here in Germany and I used the time to see an art exhibition of the spectacular kind: Olafur Eliasson: Innen Stadt Außen.

Art exhibitions probably mean different things for different people and convey different messages. As a neuroscientist, this exhibition was all about perception and how our perception can be challenged by skillfully using simple rules of physics and psychophysics in art. In "Innen Stadt Aussen" the artist is manipulating our perception by manipulating light in various ways, either by using colored filters, or mirrors or shadows in a cunning and challenging way.

The exhibition is displayed in the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin until August 9, 2010. I'll describe a few of the pieces I found most engaging.

Spoiler alert: do not read further if you plan on seeing the exhibition!

The exhibition has two entrances and for us the tour started with 'Your blind movement" which is a series of three rooms filled with fog and lit by colored ceiling lights. An amazing experience with a very low ceiling, no windows and completely surrounded by colored fog, with very limited visibility in the range of only a meter or two.

Another highlight on that wing was the building right next to the one we were in. Or at least what seemed like another building from looking out of the window. To our surprise, we could see ourselves in the windows of the other building! Did the artist make the other windows reflective? How did he do that? On closer inspection, there was no other building, but only a gigantic mirror mounted outside of the windows, reflecting the entire building! So what we had been seeing through the window was the building we were in, mirrored outside of the building ("The curious museum"). Quite unexpected, which is exactly one of the kinds of art I like: things that turn out not to be what the first seem to be.


"Round Rainbow" (above) is a beautiful play with the physics of light. Here, the artist has pulled a clear acrylic prism into the shape of a circle and shines light through it, while it rotates. The interplay of diffraction/reflection with the shadows makes for an impressive display of the main wave-like properties of light.

Olafur Eliasson | Martin Gropius Bau : Water Pendulum, 2010 from MADE Blog on Vimeo.

The next massive challenge for our perception was "Water pendulum", embedded above. From the entrance, it seemed like electric flashes of lightning and the sounds seemed to confirm this first impression. But when you entered the room it became clear very quickly that a translucent hose was hanging from the ceiling, spewing water. It was stroboscopically illuminated in a dark room, giving the impression of lightning. Immediately with this realization, the initial perception of electrical activity switched to that of falling water. Incredible how sight rules sound and can lead to severe distortions in what we perceive.


Between the two wings of the exhibition was "Mikroskop" (above). Two gigantic mirrors at an angle on the longside of the room and two more capping the ends of it. This stunning arrangement lead to a visual impression of a room which was exactly opposite of the actual geometry. In this image, it seems the walls (which are the ceiling, reflected) tilt inwards - but the mirrors tilted outwards, as you can see by the entrance on the right side. You must see it to experience the full impact.


On the other side, we were met by yet another surprise (Succession, above): even though we were on the first floor, there was a lush lawn right in front of our window, making us seem standing below ground. However, the artist has built a scaffold to carry a platform on which the grass was growing. The illusion was perfect, as you can see.


Another particularly impressive, yet simple piece was "Your roundabout movie" which basically showed a dark rectangle and a green square rotating in opposite directions (see picture above). It was obvious, that the dark rectangle was a shadow from a green light source on the opposite wall. But where did the green square come from? Only a look behind the semi-transparent wall revieled that it was also a shadow from another light on the other side. Very clever!

Finally, we had great fun throwing shadows in the three rooms equipped with multiple light sources on the floor of one side of the room ("Your uncertain shadow"). This is what I thought was our best shot:

Far from being uncertain, though, she is obviously very pregnant

All in all a thrill of an exhibition! It gets all my thumbs up and I can only recommend you move heaven and hell to go and see it!