How I Work: Olafur Eliasson

Coinciding with the publication of a major new retrospective, CR sat down with the Icelandic-Danish artist to talk about how he works, his studio, smartphones and the importance of lunch

Olafur Eliasson’s extraordinary and spectacular works include installing a series of giant waterfalls in New York, dyeing a river green, transporting blocks of glacial ice to a Parisian square and, of course, The weather project, perhaps the most memorable use of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. With his 100-strong team based in Berlin, he works across painting, sculpture, photography and, most recently, architecture with the opening of the Fjordenhus in Denmark.

The first 25 years of Eliasson’s career are documented in Experience, a new book from Phaidon. We talked with him for our How I Work series ahead of a recent lecture in London.