Abstract
This paper examines Olafur Eliasson’s Life (Fondation Beyeler, 2021) as a case study for rethinking the museum in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on critical perspectives from Paul Valéry, Theodor W. Adorno, Douglas Crimp, and Brian O’Doherty, the essay analyzes how Eliasson’s intervention suspends and reconfigures dominant regimes of exhibition, from the encyclopedic accumulation of objects to the modernist “white cube”, by materially flooding the institution, removing architectural boundaries, and enabling new sensory interfaces. The analysis also considers the role of live-stream technologies, which multiply mediated standpoints and simulate non-human perspectives, thereby challenging anthropocentric assumptions of spectatorship. Engaging Natasha Myers’s notion of the “Planthroposcene,” the essay situates Life not as a definitive ecological paradigm but as a performative experiment in plant-human cohabitation under curatorial and technological mediation. Combining critical theory with close description of the work’s material and institutional conditions, Life anticipates a post-pandemic museum that is porous, ecological, and in continuous transformation.
Presenters
Celina Figueiredo LageProfessor, Escola Guignard, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2026 Special Focus—Modeling Life Systems: Art, Algorithms, Ecologies
KEYWORDS
MUSEUM, NATURE, NEW MEDIA
