Olafur Eliasson

We want to feel that we are safe.

We want to feel that we are good enough.

This feeling requires somebody or something to see us.

Culture, as I see it, is one of the languages that can make you feel seen, met, and heard.

I need to unsee what I have been seeing all along.

There's nothing more inspiring than accepting that you have been blind.

Thank you, Willow, and thank you for having me here on this podcast.

I was born in Denmark by Icelandic parents.

They were very young and I was sent off to Iceland to be with my grandparents whenever there was a chance.

That means that summers, maybe Christmas, Easter holiday.

And it meant that I spent a considerable amount of time being slow.

One of my earliest memories that I have is that I was at my grandparents' house.

It must have been 72, 73, where there was an oil crisis.

Every night, I believe it was maybe after dinner or seven or eight o'clock, there would be a big bell in the city.

And then all this electricity of the city would be turned off to save electricity every night.

I think it was every night.

When we heard the bell, we ran to the window.

My grandparents lived a little bit on the periphery of the city, overlooking the city, overlooking the harbour and the city.

And there was this magic moment where all the lights would go off, like over the whole city, right?

But what was very special was that my grandmother typically would come with a candle then and we would sit by the window.