1 of the great challenges today is that we often feel untouched by the problems of others and by global issues like climate change, even when nosotros could hands exercise something to assistance. We do not feel strongly enough that nosotros are office of a global customs, part of a larger we. Giving people access to data most oft leaves them feeling overwhelmed and asunder, not empowered and poised for action. This is where art tin can make a difference. Art does not show people what to practice, yet engaging with a good work of fine art tin can connect yous to your senses, body, and mind. It can make the world felt. And this felt feeling may spur thinking, engagement, and fifty-fifty action.

As an artist I have travelled to many countries around the world over the past 20 years. On one twenty-four hours I may stand in forepart of an audience of global leaders or substitution thoughts with a foreign minister and hash out the construction of an artwork or exhibition with local craftsmen the next. Working as an artist 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 take part in these local and global exchanges has profoundly affected the artworks that I brand, driving me to create art that I hope touches people everywhere.


Most of us know the feeling of existence moved by a piece of work of fine art, whether it is a song, a play, a poem, a novel, a painting, or a spatio-temporal experiment. When we are touched, we are moved; we are transported to a new place that is, notwithstanding, strongly rooted in a physical experience, in our bodies. We become enlightened of a feeling that may not be unfamiliar to us but which we did not actively focus on earlier. This transformative feel is what art is constantly seeking.

I believe that ane of the major responsibilities of artists – and the thought that artists have responsibilities may come as a surprise to some – is to aid people not but get to know and empathise something with their minds only also to feel it emotionally and physically. Past doing this, fine art can mitigate the numbing effect created by the overabundance of data we are faced with today, and motivate people to turn thinking into doing.

Engaging with art is non simply a solitary event. The arts and civilisation represent 1 of the few areas in our lodge where people can come together to share an feel even if they see the world in radically dissimilar ways. The important affair is not that we agree about the experience that we share, but that we consider information technology worthwhile sharing an experience at all. In art and other forms of cultural expression, disagreement is accepted and embraced every bit an essential ingredient. In this sense, the customs created by arts and civilisation is potentially a peachy 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 besides encourages usa to cherish intuition, uncertainty, and creativity and to search constantly for new ideas; artists aim to break rules and find unorthodox means of approaching contemporary bug. My friend Ai Weiwei, for example, the great Chinese creative person, 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 right now and too to create a signal of contact that takes us beyond an us-and-them mentality to a broader idea of what constitutes we. This is ane way that fine art can engage with the world to modify the earth.

Lilliputian Sun, a solar energy project and social business that I fix in 2012 with engineer Frederik Ottesen, is some other instance of what I believe art can exercise. Light is and then incredibly of import to me, and many of my works use light every bit their primary material. The immaterial qualities of lite shape life. Lite is life. This is why nosotros started Little Dominicus.

On a practical level, we work to promote solar energy for all – Little Sun responds to the need to develop sustainable, renewable energy past producing and distributing affordable solar-powered lamps and mobile chargers, focusing particularly on reaching regions of the world that do not accept consistent admission to an electric grid. At the same time, Picayune Lord's day is also about making people feel continued to the lives of others in places that are far away geographically. For those who selection upward a Niggling Lord's day solar lamp, concur information technology in their hands, and employ information technology to light their evening, the lamp communicates a feeling of having resources and of existence powerful. With Niggling Lord's day you tap into the energy of the sun to ability up with solar free energy. It takes something that belongs to all of us – the sun – and makes it available to each of us. This feeling of having personal power is something we can all identify with. Footling Sun creates a customs based effectually this feeling that spans the globe.

I am convinced that by bringing u.s.a. together to share and discuss, a work of art tin make us more tolerant of departure and of ane another. The come across with art – and with others over fine art – can help usa place with one another, expand our notions of nosotros, and show us that individual engagement in the globe has actual consequences. That'due south why I hope that in the future, art will be invited to accept function in discussions of social, political, and ecological issues even more than it is currently and that artists will be included when leaders at all levels, from the local to the global, consider solutions to the challenges that face united states of america in the world today.

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