For my BA thesis I wanted to expand the field of architecture and urbanism into the field of art. This is because in the last two to three decades, throughout the world, urban and architectural spaces have been losing their identities over cities, driven mainly by commercial and economic interests. Nevertheless, a number of visual artists have been escaping from their own traditional sphere of activity and exploring questions about space, the main tool of architects. These artists have been creating innovative hybrid works of art-and-architecture that highlight the singularity of places. Furthermore, they have also been focusing on the spectator’s bodily experiences using a phenomenological approach on their artworks. Among these artists, there is the Danish-Icelandic contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson. In this research, five artworks of Eliasson were discussed and analyzed: Your Rainbow Panorama (2011, Aarhus, Denmark); the creation of façades for Harpa Concert Hall & Conference Centre (2011, Reykjavik, Iceland); Inside the Horizon, permanent installation at the Foundation Louis Vuitton (2014, Paris, France); Cirkelbroen bridge (2015, Copenhagen, Denmark); The Weather Project, temporary installation at Tate Modern (2004, London, United Kingdom). The thesis opened discussions on how the adoption of phenomenological aspects of these artworks contributed to an embodied experience of the spectators and in which ways they served as a tool for activation and vitality of the architectural spaces. This study also aimed to contribute to the recent debates concerning the tenuous limit of the interdisciplinary fields of visual art and architecture.
