A Sailboat-Shaped Bridge Opens in Copenhagen

Last weekend, 7,000 inhabitants and visitors of Copenhagen flooded the five waterborne platforms of Olafur Eliasson's latest work.

by Sami Emory

August 26, 2015, 3:15pm

Olafur Eliasson, Cirkelbroen, 2015, 25 x 19.6 x 39.3 m, Christianshavns Kanal, Copenhagen, 2015, Photo: Anders Sune Berg, A gift from Nordea-fonden to the city of Copenhagen, © Olafur Eliasson.

Last weekend, 7,000 inhabitants and tourists flooded the five waterborne platforms of Olafur Eliasson’s Cirkelbroen, “The Circle Bridge,” in Copenhagen. The city-sponsored work celebrates a long history of maritime life in the capital and provides a new perspective on the city's sites, accompanied by a refreshing sea-breeze. Eliasson’s design itself evokes the fishing boats of his childhood in Iceland in curving guardrails, cascading strings of LEDs, and mast-like poles extending high above the Christianshavn Canal.

“In my art practice, I often use transient materials such as wind, fog and flowing water,” said in the artist in a statement. “It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to make a structure like Cirkelbroen, which both embodies this transience—the changing of the weather and the waterfront atmosphere—and, as a bridge, has a long, stable life ahead of it.” This first characteristic is embodied practically, in the bridge’s function as a swing bridge that allows boats’ passage, as well as aesthetically, in the LED threads which transition the structure from day to night. As for the life of the bridge, Eliasson adds, “As many as 5,000 people will cross this bridge each day. I hope that these people will use Cirkelbroen as a meeting place, and that the zigzag design of the bridge will make them reduce their speed and take a break.”

Below, see images from Cirkelbroen’s bustling public opening.