Olafur Eliasson: Trembling horizons

Olafur Eliasson transforms the Manica Lunga wing of Castello di Rivoli by installing a new series of six immersive wedge-shaped optical device-like artworks in the long gallery. Inside each, the viewer can watch complex patterns unfold in fluid motion within a 360-degree panoramic space that seems more expansive than physically possible – optical illusions created through mirrors and light projections.

Since the late nineties, Eliasson’s practice has combined the memory of the encounter with nature with the broad branches of science and ecological thought, proposing works that invite the active participation of those who meet them. Orizzonti tremanti presents new works that derive from experiments conducted by the artist at his Berlin studio. Eliasson was inspired by scientific instruments, taking into consideration the ambivalent role they have played throughout history. Produced over the last year, the new works on display propose a closer relationship between body and mind, recognizing the value of subjective and sensorial experience.

In the Manica Lunga – a vast baroque gallery – the exhibition opens with Navigation star for utopia, 2022, a luminous, suspended work that welcomes visitors. Its beams of colored light shine across the environment and draw light effects, almost suggesting an orientation tool for the future.

This is followed by the series of works the artist has created for the space of the Manica Lunga: Your curious kaleidorama, Your power kaleidorama, Your self-reflective kaleidorama, Your hesitant kaleidorama, Your memory of the kaleidorama, and Your living kaleidorama. Each is mounted on the gallery wall and oriented at a different angle. Visitors enter from below the constructions or face straight on to view projections of illuminated lines, forms, and patterns. These are generated in real time using a spotlight beam either reflected off an adjacent basin of water or shone through a lens system. Eliasson calls these works kaleidoramas, combining the words kaleidoscope and panorama.

In all the kaleidoramas, audiences watch complex patterns of oscillating elements interact to create an evolving visual and spatial environment. The visual compositions swell and subside in frequency and rhythm – some in gentle waves, others in violent trembling – according to the behaviour of water or influence of optical instruments.

The exhibition culminates in Your non-human friend and navigator, 2022, with parts suspended in the air and set up on the floor. This new installation is produced using two pieces of driftwood, logs carried by the sea, worn out by the action of the elements. Eliasson collected the wood from the beaches of Iceland, where the logs land after travelling many kilometers from distant countries. The presence of a magnet orients the suspended part of the work along the north–south axis, while the thin veils of watercolor applied to the wood laid on the floor evoke the sea currents that have driven it for thousands of miles.

Olafur Eliasson exhibited at Castello di Rivoli in 1999 for his first museum exhibition outside Scandinavia, and again in 2008 during the second Turin Triennale, when he created The sun has no money. Works from both exhibitions are part of the Collections of the Castello di Rivoli.

On the occasion of Orizzonti tremanti, Eliasson’s installation Your circumspection disclosed, 1999, is installed in the mezzanine of the Manica Lunga, the gallery for which it was originally conceived. In December, to coincide with the 38th anniversary of the museum, The sun has no money, 2008, will be installed in the vaulted, 18th-century gallery for which it was initially planned by Eliasson.

The project is the winner of the PAC2021 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture



The Olafur Eliasson exhibition is also made possible thanks to the additional contribution of the Fondazione CRT



Main Partner 



Castello di Rivoli thanks its Friend and Benefactor Gianfranco D’Amato for additional support. We also thank the Friend Benefactor Andrea Ruben Levi, the Friend Paolo Merlo and the Supporting Friend Roberta Ceretto.

Travel Partner

Holders of a Frecciarossa, Frecciargento or Frecciabianca ticket – with destination Turin on a travel date within three days before the entrance to the Castello di Rivoli – will receive a 50% discount on the entrance ticket to the Museum and 10% at the Bookshop of Castello di Rivoli. Tickets can be purchased at Castello di Rivoli ticket office or on the castellodirivoli.org website. In both cases, to take advantage of the discount, it will be necessary to show your travel document at the Castello di Rivoli ticket office