If you've ever been to the Louisiana Museum in Denmark, you know it's one of the most dramatic museum locations around: Perched on a rocky cliff above Øresund, looking out over the ocean, it's easy to find yourself staring out to sea instead of at the art. Now, Olafur Eliasson has brought the landscape inside the museum.
As part of Eliasson's new show at Louisiana, he's installed a sprawling creekbed inside one of its cavernous gallery spaces—called Riverbed, it is exactly what it sounds like: A warren of water-darkened paths that wind that runs down a slight, muddy slope.
The installation takes up the entire south wing of the museum, a sprawling amount of space that's been painstakingly transformed into a—at least to our eyes—natural landscape.
Of course, it's synthetic in the most intense way possible—but that's what makes it interesting. You probably remember other blockbusters from Eliasson's past, many of which involved replicating the "natural" world through wildly unnatural means: He installed a massive glowing sun in London. And waterfalls in New York. Or fog in Beijing. Now, a muddy creek bed outside of Copenhagen. It's far from the only work he makes, but it's also by far the most popular. Who can blame us—humans love trickery.
If you're near Copenhagen over the next few months, check out the entire show, which runs until January 2015. [Louisiana]
Images courtesy of Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.