Ane of the great challenges today is that we ofttimes feel untouched by the bug of others and past global bug like climate change, even when we could hands practise something to aid. We do not feel strongly enough that we are part of a global community, role of a larger we. Giving people admission to information most often leaves them feeling overwhelmed and disconnected, not empowered and poised for action. This is where art tin make a divergence. Art does not show people what to exercise, yet engaging with a skilful piece of work of art can connect y'all to your senses, body, and mind. Information technology can make the earth felt. And this felt feeling may spur thinking, engagement, and even action.

As an artist I accept travelled to many countries around the world over the past 20 years. On ane day I may stand up in front of an audience of global leaders or exchange thoughts with a foreign minister and talk over the structure of an artwork or exhibition with local craftsmen the next. Working as an artist has brought me into contact with a wealth of outlooks on the world and introduced me to a vast range of truly differing perceptions, felt ideas, and knowledge. Being able to accept function in these local and global exchanges has profoundly affected the artworks that I make, driving me to create art that I hope touches people everywhere.


Well-nigh of us know the feeling of existence moved by a work of art, whether it is a song, a play, a poem, a novel, a painting, or a spatio-temporal experiment. When we are touched, nosotros are moved; nosotros are transported to a new place that is, nevertheless, strongly rooted in a concrete experience, in our bodies. Nosotros become aware of a feeling that may not exist unfamiliar to us only which nosotros did not actively focus on earlier. This transformative feel is what art is constantly seeking.

I believe that 1 of the major responsibilities of artists – and the idea that artists have responsibilities may come equally a surprise to some – is to help people not merely get to know and understand something with their minds but as well to feel information technology emotionally and physically. Past doing this, art tin mitigate the numbing result created by the glut of information we are faced with today, and motivate people to turn thinking into doing.

Engaging with art is non but a solitary event. The arts and culture represent ane of the few areas in our society where people can come together to share an experience even if they see the globe in radically different ways. The important thing is not that we concord about the feel that we share, just that we consider it worthwhile sharing an feel at all. In art and other forms of cultural expression, disagreement is accepted and embraced as an essential ingredient. In this sense, the community created by arts and civilization is potentially a bang-up source of inspiration for politicians and activists who work to transcend the polarising populism and stigmatisation of other people, positions, and worldviews that is sadly so endemic in public discourse today.

Art also encourages u.s. to cherish intuition, uncertainty, and creativity and to search constantly for new ideas; artists aim to break rules and detect unorthodox ways of budgeted contemporary issues. My friend Ai Weiwei, for instance, the great Chinese artist, is currently making a temporary studio on the island of Lesbos to draw attending to the plight of the millions of migrants trying to enter Europe right at present and also to create a betoken of contact that takes u.s.a. across an us-and-them mentality to a broader idea of what constitutes we. This is one way that art can engage with the earth to change the earth.

Piddling Sun, a solar energy project and social business organization that I ready in 2012 with engineer Frederik Ottesen, is another example of what I believe fine art can practice. Light is so incredibly important to me, and many of my works use lite every bit their main material. The immaterial qualities of light shape life. Light is life. This is why we started Little Sun.

On a applied level, we work to promote solar energy for all – Little Sun responds to the demand to develop sustainable, renewable free energy by producing and distributing affordable solar-powered lamps and mobile chargers, focusing especially on reaching regions of the world that do not have consistent access to an electrical filigree. At the same time, Footling Sun is besides about making people feel connected to the lives of others in places that are far abroad geographically. For those who pick upwards a Lilliputian Dominicus solar lamp, hold information technology in their hands, and utilize information technology to calorie-free their evening, the lamp communicates a feeling of having resources and of existence powerful. With Trivial Sun y'all tap into the energy of the sunday to ability up with solar energy. It takes something that belongs to all of us – the sun – and makes it available to each of u.s.. This feeling of having personal power is something we tin can all identify with. Little Sun creates a customs based around this feeling that spans the globe.

I am convinced that by bringing u.s.a. together to share and hash out, a work of art can make us more tolerant of deviation and of one another. The encounter with art – and with others over fine art – can assist us place with one another, expand our notions of we, and show united states that individual date in the globe has actual consequences. That'south why I hope that in the future, art will exist invited to take part in discussions of social, political, and ecological problems even more it is currently and that artists will be included when leaders at all levels, from the local to the global, consider solutions to the challenges that face us in the world today.

Olafur Eliasson is 1 of the recipients of this year'southward Crystal Awards, presented at the Annual Meeting in Davos. Y'all can follow him on Twitter via @olafureliasson