1 of the bully challenges today is that nosotros oft feel untouched by the problems of others and past global issues like climatic change, even when we could easily exercise something to help. We do not feel strongly plenty that we are part of a global community, part of a larger we. Giving people access to information most ofttimes leaves them feeling overwhelmed and disconnected, non empowered and poised for activity. This is where art tin can make a difference. Art does not show people what to practice, however engaging with a adept work of art tin connect y'all to your senses, body, and mind. It tin can make the earth felt. And this felt feeling may spur thinking, engagement, and even action.

As an artist I have travelled to many countries around the world over the by xx years. On 1 day I may stand up in front of an audition of global leaders or exchange thoughts with a foreign minister and hash out the construction of an artwork or exhibition with local craftsmen the adjacent. Working as an creative person has brought me into contact with a wealth of outlooks on the world and introduced me to a vast range of truly differing perceptions, felt ideas, and knowledge. Being able to have part in these local and global exchanges has greatly affected the artworks that I make, driving me to create art that I hope touches people everywhere.


Most of u.s. know the feeling of being moved by a work of art, whether it is a song, a play, a poem, a novel, a painting, or a spatio-temporal experiment. When nosotros are touched, we are moved; we are transported to a new identify that is, yet, strongly rooted in a physical feel, in our bodies. We become aware of a feeling that may not be unfamiliar to us only which nosotros did not actively focus on before. This transformative experience is what art is constantly seeking.

I believe that one of the major responsibilities of artists – and the idea that artists have responsibilities may come equally a surprise to some – is to assist people not only get to know and understand something with their minds but besides to feel it emotionally and physically. By doing this, art tin can mitigate the numbing effect created by the glut of information nosotros are faced with today, and motivate people to turn thinking into doing.

Engaging with art is not but a lone effect. The arts and culture stand for i of the few areas in our club where people tin come together to share an experience even if they see the globe in radically unlike ways. The important thing is not that nosotros agree about the experience that we share, but that we consider it worthwhile sharing an experience at all. In art and other forms of cultural expression, disagreement is accepted and embraced as an essential ingredient. In this sense, the community created past arts and culture is potentially a keen source of inspiration for politicians and activists who work to transcend the polarising populism and stigmatisation of other people, positions, and worldviews that is sadly so endemic in public discourse today.

Art also encourages the states to cherish intuition, doubt, and creativity and to search constantly for new ideas; artists aim to intermission rules and find unorthodox ways of approaching contemporary bug. My friend Ai Weiwei, for example, the smashing Chinese artist, is currently making a temporary studio on the island of Lesbos to draw attention to the plight of the millions of migrants trying to enter Europe correct now and also to create a bespeak of contact that takes us beyond an us-and-them mentality to a broader idea of what constitutes nosotros. This is one mode that art can appoint with the world to change the world.

Little Lord's day, a solar energy projection and social business that I set upward in 2012 with engineer Frederik Ottesen, is another case of what I believe art tin can do. Light is and then incredibly important to me, and many of my works use low-cal as their primary material. The immaterial qualities of low-cal shape life. Light is life. This is why we started Piffling Sunday.

On a practical level, we work to promote solar energy for all – Little Lord's day responds to the demand to develop sustainable, renewable free energy by producing and distributing affordable solar-powered lamps and mobile chargers, focusing especially on reaching regions of the world that do not accept consistent access to an electric filigree. At the same time, Little Sun is also virtually making people feel connected to the lives of others in places that are far away geographically. For those who pick up a Little Sun solar lamp, hold it in their hands, and employ information technology to calorie-free their evening, the lamp communicates a feeling of having resources and of being powerful. With Little Sun you tap into the free energy of the sun to power up with solar energy. Information technology takes something that belongs to all of us – the lord's day – and makes it available to each of us. This feeling of having personal power is something we can all place with. Fiddling Sun creates a community based around this feeling that spans the globe.

I am convinced that by bringing us together to share and discuss, a piece of work of fine art can make us more tolerant of difference and of one some other. The come across with fine art – and with others over art – can help u.s.a. place with 1 another, aggrandize our notions of nosotros, and show u.s.a. that private date in the globe has bodily consequences. That'due south why I hope that in the futurity, art will be invited to take part in discussions of social, political, and ecological issues even more than it is currently and that artists volition be included when leaders at all levels, from the local to the global, consider solutions to the challenges that face us in the world today.

Olafur Eliasson is one of the recipients of this year'due south Crystal Awards, presented at the Annual Meeting in Davos. You lot tin follow him on Twitter via @olafureliasson