Interviewed on 20 July 2005 in Berlin.

Bart Lootsma: I’m very curious about this BMW project. What’s your interest in cars?

Olafur Eliasson: Well, to put it simply, I involve myself in a new field almost every time I take on a
project, but the topics I research into are always somehow related to our understanding of the
individual and to questions of sociality – I’m interested in how we connect with our surrounding
world. My artistic practice isn’t about this or that object; it’s a laboratory process. So, a car might
initially seem a very odd thing to engage with, but I’m extremely interested in mobility and our
understanding of time and movement – of the idea of collective or single bodies moving through
space; of our ability to move altogether. I think movement is intimately linked with our way of
perceiving the world. It emphasises the physicality of our being; it connects our bodies and brains.
I’m also very occupied with the question of how a form arises. What’s the relationship
between form and content? It’s my impression that many car designers today don’t think about the
consequences of the forms they create, but only do what they believe looks good.

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