The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) presents the world premiere of The unpredictable orbit, a newly commissioned work by internationally renowned contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson, in the lobby of MMCA Seoul.
 
The unpredictable orbit (2026) is a site-specific commission conceived for a public space such as the lobby of MMCA Seoul, where natural daylight and artificial illumination come together. Suspended from the ceiling, a long boom is balanced by a luminous compound polyhedron at one end and a fan at the other.

The irregular action of the fan sets the entire structure into slow yet unpredictable motion, while light from within the glass polyhedron projects colourful polygons and subtle shadows onto the surrounding space. As daylight mingles with the artificial light, the geometric forms soften into fields of colour and intersecting lines, transforming the entire space into an ever-changing environment of light. As daylight fades, vivid projections of coloured light and shadow increasingly fill the space.
 
At the heart of the artwork is a compound polyhedron created by combining two dual polyhedra, demonstrating a geometric principle in which contrasting forms come together to create a unified order. Such complex geometries have long been part of Eliasson’s artistic vocabulary. As the work moves, visitors experience through their own bodies the continuously changing relationships between light, movement, and space.

The artwork’s simple mechanism recalls Alexander Calder’s mobiles, while the illuminated glass polyhedron evokes traditional lanterns found throughout Asia. In this way, The unpredictable orbit recalls both tradition and memories of childhood, while opening up new forms of perception and experience through a contemporary exploration of light, movement, and space.
 
The work is the first project commissioned under “Contemporary Artist’s Commission on Tour,” part of MMCA’s 2026 “MMCA Together” programme. This new initiative seeks to broaden public access to culture by sharing cultural content previously concentrated in the Seoul metropolitan area with audiences across the country, while contributing to the vitality and sustainability of regional cultural ecosystems.
 
With regional touring envisioned from the outset, the artist was selected through a process of curatorial recommendation and review, and Eliasson’s new work is the first commission to be realised through the programme.

Conceived for shared public spaces such as museum lobbies, the work will make its debut and undergo operational testing at MMCA Seoul from August through October 2026.
 
It is then scheduled to be installed at Jeonbuk Museum of Art from November 2026 and at Gangneung Art Museum Sorol from February 2027. Through this initiative, audiences beyond the Seoul metropolitan area will have opportunities to experience a newly commissioned work by a leading international contemporary artist in a range of public spaces across Korea.
 
Speaking about the new commission, Olafur Eliasson said “Korea is a special place where nature and the city, tradition and contemporaneity, coexist. Rather than being a single sculpture, The unpredictable orbit is an experience created together through light, movement, and people”.
 
Also, he added that “The artwork continuously reveals different appearances as time and light change, and visitors, while looking at the work, also become part of it. I hope the work offers people an opportunity to experience the space around them in a slightly different way and to rediscover their own senses and perceptions.”

References

• 국립현대미술관 보도자료 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) Press Release)