In their first collaboration, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and Chinese architect Ma Yansong combine light, fog, and architecture in a project that investigates how we perceive our surroundings and engage in the world. “I find it very exciting that an exhibition can show nothing but the viewer and yet have that as its strength,” says Eliasson. As visitors disappear into the fog, they literally become a part of the installation. As they move through the space, hundreds of red, green, and blue T5 fluorescents arranged in a grid on the ceiling blend, causing each viewer to experience his or her own distinct journey through the zones of color. Rather than considering their respective disciplines separately, Ma and Eliasson focused on the creative process as a whole, blurring the boundaries between art and architecture. In the dematerialized environment the two have created, viewers experience a heightened sensory awareness. “Space has never existed,” says Ma, “but rather exists only in the specific feelings it induces.”

Beth Broome