“Olafur Eliasson: The collectivity project”
Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2005–15, white Lego bricks and wood, courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2005–15, white Lego bricks and wood, courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2005–15, white Lego bricks and wood, courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2005–15, white Lego bricks and wood, courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Olafur Eliasson
Olafur Eliasson, The collectivity project, 2005–15, white Lego bricks and wood, courtesy of the artist; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York; and neugerriemschneider, Berlin. © Olafur Eliasson
A view of The collectivity project as visitors participated in its creation at the MFAH Mixed Media Block Party on Friday, October 16, 2015.
Photograph by Cameron Bertuzzi.
Museum visitors participate in The collectivity project at the MFAH Mixed Media Block Party on Friday, October 16, 2015.
Photograph by Cameron Bertuzzi.
Title
“Olafur Eliasson: The collectivity project”
Dates
Through January 31, 2016
Overview
This past weekend, the 5,000 guests who attended the Mixed Media Block Party at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, were among the first to help create a monumental work of art at the Museum. The collectivity project is an installation of more than 580,000 white LEGO® bricks that allows the public to create an imaginary cityscape. Visitors to the Museum are invited to build and rebuild the structures; over time, a collective creation takes form. The project will remain in the lobby of the Caroline Wiess Law Building until January 31, 2016.
The interactive installation was first conceived by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in 2005, and has previously been installed in public squares in Tirana, Albania (2005), Oslo, Norway (2006), and Copenhagen, Denmark (2008). It was most recently on view at the High Line in New York (2015).
The Houston presentation of The collectivity project coincides with the groundbreaking of the Museum’s Fayez S. Sarofim Campus and the new Glassell School of Art. This human-scale artwork invites Museum visitors to engage in new ways of thinking about our city’s built environment and our relationship to social spaces.
In the days before the opening of the project, students from the Rice School of Architecture and Texas Southern University were invited to collaborate by building the project’s initial structures.
Location
The Caroline Wiess Law Building / 1001 Bissonnet Street
Media Contact
Laine Lieberman, publicist
lieberman@mfah.org / 713.639.7516