Under the weather is a new site-specific artwork created by Olafur Eliasson for the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi and the starting point for the exhibition Olafur Eliasson: Nel tuo tempo, which unfolds inside the palazzo, on the Piano Nobile and in the Strozzina. The installation consists of an 11-meter-large elliptical screen hanging at a height of 8 m. The screen, which appears to flicker and change as visitors move around the courtyard, presents a moiré pattern – an effect that occurs wherever two or more grids or similar patterns are overlaid and clash, interfering with our vision.
The artist offers us an experience that allows us to reflect on perception and movement in relation to the space around us. As we move about the courtyard, the pattern appears to change with our shifting perspectives, interacting with each of us individually and destabilising our perception of the strict, right-angled Renaissance architecture of Palazzo Strozzi.
Moiré effect
In conjunction with the installation, Palazzo Strozzi has developed the educational project Moiré effect. Department of Physics and Astronomy, the National Optics Institute (CNR-INO) and the European Laboratory for Non-linear Spectroscopy (LENS) are involved in a cycle of guided tours between art and science, conducted jointly by a Palazzo Strozzi educator and a physician, thus offering a dual artistic and scientific approach to Olafur Eliasson’s art. The activity begins in the courtyard and continues through the works on display where the games of refraction and reflection of light are configured as aesthetic-scientific experiments.
The installation and the activities are part of Palazzo Strozzi Future Art programme developed with the support of the Fondazione Hillary Merkus Recordati.
