Long Daylight Pavilion by Olaf Eliasson

 Hello to all the lovely creatures out there!

In today's post I came back with a very interesting sculpture-installation that you can actually find pretty easily if you ever decide to visit Finland! Let me present y'all the Long Daylight Pavilion by Olafur Eliasson!

A perspective of Long Daylight Pavilion - Olafur Eliasson - 2025

Long Daylight Pavilion is a site-specific artwork that makrs the sun's path through the sky above the city of Helsinki on the summer solstice. This light installation is inspired by time, the sun, and the geographical location of Helsinki.

It consists of twenty-four poles, embedded directly into the bedrock. The poles form an open, spacious ring that extends from the land into the water. The height of the poles were determined by tracking the path of the sun as it apperas from the site on 21 June, the longest day of the sunlight during the year. The shortest pole, which indicates the lowest point of the sun on the solstice, is situated at the north side of the circle, and the tallest - reflecting the location of the sun as its zenith - is in the south. Viewers can use the work as a kind of compass to orient themselves to their surroundings and in relation to the Earth.

The installation will reveal its full brilliance in the dark, when lanterns shine out of the poles through diamond-shaped apertures that become increasingly open towards the tops. Here, they culminate in single points of bright light. Together, these points of light produce an angled ring that matches the sun's path. The artwork might appear as a lighthouse shinning across the dark water. People approaching from the bridge glimpse the lights foreshortened into chaning ellipses, whereas from particular angles, they may appear as a single luminescent ring hovering in the distance.

 

Perspective of the Long Daylight Pavilion - Olafur Eliasson - 2025

The artist who created it, Olafur Eliasson, in a Icelandic-Danish artist who likes to explore the relevance of art in the world. Since 1997, his wide-ranging solo shows - featuring insallations, paintings, sculptures, photography, and film - have appeared in major museums around the globe. He has been a part of many major exhibitions as well like the Venice Biennale and in 2019, Eliasson was named UNDP Goodwill Ambassador for climate action.

I always find these kind of outdoors installations pretty interesting as to create the artwork, the artist needs to keep in mind that it has to be in synch with th enature and the environment around it. I think Eliasson is one of those artists who really pays attention in his surroundings and creates art that really speaks for itself and its surroundings. I hope I've triggered you all to research some more about him!

See you in a next post and as always thank you for reading!

xoxoxo