What can be cited to show Mr. Eliasson’ s understanding of total-immersion art?

When asked to describe his work, Olafur Eliasson replies "My art is about you. " This might sound strange, coming from an artist who is famous for creating a giant artificial sun at Tate Modern, who has just built a pavilion that looks like a spinning top in London Hyde Park and is showing pieces ranging from a rainbow to a frozen hydroelectric car in his new retrospective at San Francisco’ s Museum of Modern Art. But for Mr. Eliasson, the viewer’ s interaction with his art is an essential part of it.
    For the past 15 years, the artist has been quietly creating what might be called total-immersion art. " I make art that creates an experience, not a representation," he says. For instance, he has dyed rivers green in cities from Stockholm to Tokyo in order to stimulate people to look afresh at their urban surroundings.
    As he walks up the ramp of the new pavilion, he speaks with messianic fervour about his mission to engage people through art : " I want to create art that allows people to be singular and plural, to have an individual experience…and at the same time engage with other people and the landscape a-round them. " The pavilion is designed in a way that defies representation; It doesn’ t photograph well and can’ t be described in a sound-bite. The only way to understand it is by experiencing it.
    Mr. Eliasson believes that art today has an unprecedented opportunity to effect social change. "When I was a student, people became artists to step away from the world, now it is a way to engage with it. " Seeing indifference and homogeneity in public life, he wonders: " Why do people no longer have faith in basic social interaction? How does the individual fit within the collective?" Mr. Eliasson constantly poses such questions in his work.
    His interests in aesthetics and ethics converge in his new design for a hydroelectric car for BMW no show in San Francisco. The vehicle is a reflection on the relationship between the car industry and global warming. When asked how he squares his work for companies such as BMW with his antipathy to corporate values, he admits ambivalence. Nonetheless, he says, "I live in this world, not a parallel universe, and I have to engage it. " He funnels the money he makes from such projects into his charitable foundation which finances orphanages in Ethiopia.
    Mr. Eliasson’ s Scandinavian roots are often cited as an inspiration for his green politics and his use of natural elements. But he rejects this, insisting that he is not obsessed with cliches about the purity of the Nordic environment. " I am not a nature lover, I am a people lover. That is why I am an artist; I use art to engage people. "