Olafur Eliasson Reveals Versailles Waterfall
The artist finally completes his special project for the Palace of Versailles
The artist/architect Olafur Eliassonās project to build a massive waterfall within the Palace of Versailles has finally borne fruit. The project was influenced by original plans for an enormous fountain drawn up by Louis XIVās architect but never realized. Now if all this piques your interest and youāre wondering exactly how high the waterfall is ā good luck in finding out, because Eliassonās not telling. The only comment he made to reporters on Monday was that āThe height is perfectā.
Still, it is quite an impressive achievement because of how the Versailles waterfall (as fountainĀ is being called) isĀ structured ā as a latticework tower hidden behind the flow of water gushing at the top so that the water seems almost like itās appearing in midair. Eliassonās reason for refusing to reveal the height was because he wanted āto leave it to the public to make up their minds how high is highā and āto resist the idea that we have always to quantify the unquantifiableā. Beyond that, Eliasson also created a few other installations aimed atĀ eschewing visual perception while drawing attention at the same time, strewn all about the garden.
One of these other installations is the āFog Assemblyā which forms as an āenchanted misty ringā in one of the groves where visitors are encouraged to ālose themselvesā. Another is a work created in the Colonnade Grove at Versailles from dust left behind by a melting Greenland glacier. He used the glacier in an installation he made for the COP21 climate change conference in Paris late last year.
Eliassonās installations will be on show until October 30.
This story was written in-house, based on an AFP report and an image from the AFP.Ā