Olafur Eliasson: Picasso abused women, he was the Weinstein of his time

A major solo exhibition by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur E liasson (Copenhagen, 1967) opens today at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao: titled Olafur Eliasson. In Real Life, the exhibition traces the artist’s career from 1990 to the present with a selection of sculptures, photographs, paintings, and installations that, the presentation says, “challenge the way we navigate and perceive our environment.”

The exhibition was presented yesterday in Bilbao by the artist himself, and some of the statements he made at a press conference on the sidelines of a tour Eliasson gave to journalists were controversial. Expounding on his ideas about contemporary art, reports El País newspaper, the artist said, “I believe that we need to decentralize not only the ideas we have about an author, but also the ideas we have about authority. In this regard, it is important to have a more feminist point of view, because patriarchy is strongly rooted. You know it very well here, in the country of Picasso, a man who abused women, like a Harvey Weinstein of his time, whose behavior was nevertheless considered acceptable.”

Eliasson then intervened with some thoughts on theart industry, believing that the idea of culture should not be identified with large cultural institutions. “Art fairs, there is no doubt, are not sustainable, but culture is, because it is local, it is not consumerist, and it is based on inclusion and listening.”

Pictured: Olafur Eliasson

Olafur Eliasson: Picasso abused women, he was the Weinstein of his time

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