Your Submerged Spectator, 2021 – Olafur Eliasson

Seven shimmering blocks of ice hang from the ceiling of the tunnel between Kunsthaus Zürich's main building and the new extension like icebergs seen floating in the water from below. In fact they are sculpted from white marble and based on scans of pieces of ice that Eliasson and his team collected from a beach on the southern coast of Iceland known as Diamond Beach. The glistening pieces of ice wash up there after breaking off the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, and remain on shore until they melt away. Marble, a material associated with permanence, preserves the form of ice that would otherwise disappear within hours. The seven blocks correspond to the seven days of the week.

Research:
Ice forms from Diamond Beach were 3D scanned before they melted. The scan data was cleaned and adapted for CNC milling in Carrara marble; the goal was to keep the visible surface detail of the original ice. The seven blocks were suspended from the tunnel ceiling; the suspension system and fixings were designed for the weight and distribution of each marble block and for the constraints of the Kunsthaus tunnel.