Author: Ólafur Eliasson
Photogravure on Hahnemühle Bütten 400 gr. 350 x 350 cm.
With this work Olafur alludes to the Icelandic tradition to receive the new year, where bonfires are lit to burn and dispel the negative spirits of the passing year.
The piece is made up of ten black and white photoengravings and five with a dominant yellow that recalls fire. The artist reproduces the images in negative, generating lights and shadows where the portrayed characters take on a ghostly aura.
The dialogue of the pieces generates an evanescent atmosphere between the visible and the invisible; the present and the absent; or what has been and what is gone. This piece brings together some of the most recurrent themes in Eliasson's work, such as the reference to the land of his ancestors, Iceland, traditions, spirituality, or the nature of things.