Olafur Eliasson: Tunnel for unfolding time

Hortensia Herrero commissioned Olafur Eliasson to produce a site-specific work for the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero in Valencia. He was offered a passage on the second floor leading to a small room with no exit, so visitors have to retrace their steps. Eliasson designed a tunnel, entitled Tunnel for unfolding time, in which the visitor can see 1,035 pieces of glass, each of a different size and design and in all the colours of the rainbow, but when you look back all you can see is a black tunnel. Tunnel for unfolding time leads visitors through an approximately eight-metre-long corridor into a gallery in which another work by Olafur Eliasson is on display. Serving both as entrance and exit to the gallery, the tunnel requires visitors to turn around and go back through it. The variations in hue are caused by dichroic, colour-effect glass, a material that reflects certain wavelengths of light while allowing others to pass through it unimpeded. The glass thus appears to be a different colour depending on the angle at which the light hits the glass and the position from which it is seen. Viewed directly, the glass appears pink, with a cyan reflection on the surface; seen from an angle, a range of other colours in the spectrum between the two emerges, including oranges and yellows. As viewers move through the tunnel, the colours change constantly, drawing them onwards. The structure simultaneously seems to expand and contract accordion-like towards either end.