The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has transformed the palace of Versailles outside Paris with a series of dramatic installations, from a waterfall in the chateau’s Grand Canal to a veil of fine fog in the Bosquet de l’Etoile grove in the palace gardens. The exhibition of works dotted around the grounds and famous salons of the 17th-century chateau opens to the public tomorrow (7 June).
The waterfall, located behind the Fountain of Apollo, cascades from a height of around 40 metres according to the French newspaper Le Figaro. On his Instagram page, Eliasson writes that Louis XIV’s garden architect, André Le Nôtre, had planned a grand waterfall for Versailles, which was never realised.
Eliasson says: "Even though as you’ve seen there has not been a shortage of water in Paris recently, the biggest challenge logistically was getting water for the waterfall. Historically, water was always a challenge at Versailles, and so I like to think that my waterfall recalls the feats of innovative engineering that were always a part of French garden design. It’s also equally staged, as the gardens themselves are a very artificial take on nature." The artist created four temporary waterfalls along New York’s East River for the Public Art Fund in 2008.
Eliasson, known for his technically ambitious works focused on environmental issues, has posted an image on social media of a fountain at the chateau with a glacial surface. The caption reads: “Glacial rock flour: an excellent fertilizer at Chateau Versailles. Science holding hands with art.”
A series of mirror and light works are on show in rooms such as the Hall of Mirrors (Your Sense of Unity) and Salon de l’œil de Bœuf (Deep Mirror Yellow/Deep Mirror Black). “The works are very subtle, he is very respectful of the chateau and its surroundings,” says the Paris-based art advisor Laurence Dreyfus. “The sunlight on the fog piece in the Bosquet de l’Etoile is beautiful. The works touch upon ecological concerns but above all, they’re about reflection.”
Eliasson says: “The Versailles that I have been dreaming up is a place that empowers everyone… It asks them to exercise their senses, to embrace the unexpected, to drift through the gardens, and to feel the landscape take shape through their movement.”
The show has been curated by Alfred Pacquement, formerly of the Centre Pompidou, who has organised annual presentations of contemporary artists at Versailles since 2013 when Giuseppe Penone was the invited artist.
The programme was launched in 2008 with a show of Jeff Koons’s works. Last year, an exhibition of works by the British sculptor Anish Kapoor proved controversial when his cavernous sculpture Dirty Corner was repeatedly vandalised.
