The solo exhibition Your unexpected encounter by Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, who is known for his innovative approach to ecology and public engagement, is presently being shown in the stunning new building that opened last year at Istanbul Modern, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The immersive, site-specific exhibition curated by Öykü Özsoy Sağnak, Nilay Dursun and Ümit Mesci from the institution’s curatorial team features nearly 40 works, including some new productions that highlight Eliasson's 30-year career. It is also important to emphasise that it is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Türkiye, taking inspiration from Istanbul's maritime location along the Bosphorus and his first encounter with the city.

As the press release notes, Your unexpected encounter refers to Eliasson's belief that his works are only complete when viewers engage with them, highlighting his deep interest in light, colour, perception, movement, geometrical shapes and, of course, the environment. The title is also in dialogue with the artist’s permanent installation Your unexpected journey (2022), located right above the staircase leading to the temporary exhibition space. One is invited to follow a flexible path to encounter the works in an open plan upon seeing the exhibition. This is a relief after Tate's mega-buster exhibition In Real Life (2019), which had been publicly criticised by one visitor in particular with a wheelchair, Chiara O'Connor, whose tweet got significant traction across the international press; "I've just come out of the Tate Modern, to see Olafur Eliasson's exhibition, In Real Life. It's a series of mostly interactive installations that play with light, mirrors, mist, fire and water. A couple of pieces were too high for me to play with, but whatever - that's unavoidable." It was reassuring to see accessibility prioritised by Istanbul Modern as multi-purpose lifts with large capacity lead the way directly to the exhibitions on each floor and there are no steps to reach or interact with the artworks.

The exhibition's first room features the artwork Dusk to dawn, Bosporus, which uses hand-blown glass panels to reflect the changing colours of the Bosphorus placed on a wooden panel, welcoming the visitors to the museum and the city which many are familiar with. The photographic installation titled The Ship series also reflects the city's relationship to the Bosphorus and the captivating work Sunset kaleidoscope (2005) is positioned right by the window looking out to the sea, simultaneously giving a sense of impermanence and a void. It is easy to form a dialogue with the artwork titled The critical zone sphere, placed within a white wall backdrop; where the visitors can walk around it to immerse themselves in the curving ridges formed by individually folded modules of anodised aluminium held together by stable metal cables. The colourful pattern of light and shadows that reflect on the surrounding walls are alluring. The exhibition includes several reflective works, including the mirror-clad wall installation Less ego wall (2015) dividing two spaces of the museum, which is playful and engaging, easing us into the next room. The wall itself is composed of stackable, stainless-steel cubic modules that were developed as part of ongoing research at the studio into complex geometry and space-filling modules. The repeating patterns blur the boundaries between inside and out, what is in front and behind the wall in relation to the visitor and the object.

Each artwork and installation offers a multi-layered narrative that makes sense only in that space, time, location and architecture. With the light installation Your pluralistic coming together (2024) entirely dependent on the visitors' presence in the space, through beams of light with eight different spotlights projected to the wall, visitors' silhouettes would shift in colour intensity and scale each time someone moved, passing closer to and farther away from the lights. The experience of bumping into someone interacting with the installation is both serendipitous and synchronistic. This evocative effect arises from slightly offset spotlights with different colour gels: the combined rainbow lights produce white, but interruptions by the spectator create shadows in various hues, following the accompanying colour model.

Each artwork and installation offers a multi-layered narrative that makes sense only in that space, time, location and architecture.

Although the Room for one colour (1997) is one of Eliasson's most popular works (largely through a boost from social media), there is something ephemeral about it as it adapts to individual sites with monofrequency lights mounted to the ceiling of a white room emitting a narrow range of yellow light, reducing visitors' colour perception to shades of yellow and black. The longer one stays in the space, the more subtle colour distinctions are perceived from the yellowish lighting. Veins and little details are more evident, appearing black underneath the light. It is easy to come out of the exhibition feeling overstimulated.

Despite the grandiosity of the museum overlooking the sea located in the heart of the cruise terminal Galataport on the Karaköy coastline, it might be intimidating for those who are visiting for the first time to go through two separate security search scanners to enter Galataport and the other to enter into the museum. It is also important to note that like most of its other temporary exhibitions, the exhibition is sponsored by the Eczacıbaşı Group and VitrA, which at the end is linked to the Eczacıbaşı family and that other than its space provided by Galataport, it is not government supported. There is another minor disadvantage: if you are a foreign visitor, you must pay the 650 TL entrance fee (around $20) instead of the 300 TL (around $9) Türkiye resident fee to see the collection and temporary exhibitions. Luckily, students and residents have free hours during the week, as not all can afford the ticket price based on the current economic climate and minimum wage (just below $600 a month). This is not a direct critique of Türkiye's unstable economic climate and inaccessibility of private museums but an attempt to review the exhibition.

Overall, it felt like the museum guests were in dialogue with the artworks through the spatial environment, encouraging them to situate themselves and see Eliasson’s works from a new perspective. It is well-known that Eliasson's works often emphasise environmental consciousness and connect viewers to nature. By using sustainable materials and integrating site-specific elements for Your unexpected encounter, the museum presents a thought-provoking exhibition that deeply engages with Istanbul in a wider, global context.

Olafur Eliasson’s first solo exhibition in Turkey, Your unexpected encounter, is on view at Istanbul Modern until February 9, 2025.