"Euphoric Light for the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon"
a light installation by Olafur Eliasson
In his work, the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (born in 1967 in Copenhagen) focuses primarily on physical phenomena in nature, such as light, water, movement, and reflection. In many pieces from his extensive body of work, he explores the question of how light itself can be made perceptible. He became famous, for example, for “The weather project” (2003) — an artificial sun in the center of the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London. For the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon he has created a new work named “Euphorisches Licht für den Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon” (“Euphoric Light for the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon”): a light installation in the form of a circular, luminous rainbow which is on permanent display at the world’s oldest museum of historical clocks and scientific instruments.
- Exhibition Site Zwinger
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Opening Hours
daily
11—17, Monday closed
Buß- und Bettag,
18/11/2026
11—17
Christmas Eve,
24/12/2026
11—14
Christmas Day,
25/12/2026
11—17
Boxing Day,
26/12/2026
11—17
New Year's Eve,
31/12/2026
11—16
New Year,
01/01/2027
12—17
- Admission Fees normal 6 €, reduced 4,50 €, pupils (under 20 years) 2 €, children up to school age free, groups (10 persons and more) 5,50 €
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Im dunkelsten Raum
For the museum, Olafur Eliasson has created a two-meter-wide circle of light that radiates hues ranging from violet and deep blue to vivid red. In the darkest gallery of the museum, the Globe Room, the work is now on display. This circular rainbow is formed when light from a full-spectrum LED strikes a prismatic glass ring. The ring refracts the light into the individual wavelengths of the color spectrum.
The installation thus alludes to a phenomenon that can only be partially perceived in nature: physically speaking, rainbows are always complete circles. They appear as arcs, however, because the horizon limits our view of them. Eliasson’s work also stands in direct relation to the historical celestial globes in the room. These depict the entire starry sky as a sphere, rather than just the section we can see from our vantage point. Like the artwork, the globes make visible what lies beneath the horizon.
The acquisition was made possible by the 45 donors within the 2,600-member organization MUSEIS SAXONICIS USUI – Freunde der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden e.V.
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