Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The reflection of a ring on a large mirror attracts groups of visitors, who take out their phones and click many photos that will later be shared on social media.

Olafur Eliasson, who has created the artwork for his first show in Beijing, is getting used to Chinese audiences.

At the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing, the Icelandic-Danish artist is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings.

At the opening of the show, entitled Unspeakable Openness of Things, on March 23, large crowds came to the museum.

Eliasson says he wants people to enjoy his show through physical experience, such as feeling and smelling instead of only seeing it through phone cameras.

Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The 51-year-old is known for his use of such elements as lights, water, fog and shadow to create natural effects of waterfalls and rainbows. His installation Weather Project that recreated a sun at Tate Modern Museum in London reportedly attracted 2 million visitors within six months in 2003.

"I won't ban phones. I encourage people to put down their phones and feel my work in a more physical way. Go under the water and feel the rainbow," says Eliasson, referring to his large-scale installation Rainbow Assembly, a circular "curtain of mist" that has shimmering rainbows on its inward-facing side.

The artist says, sometimes, he too takes photos of his own works first and shares them on Instagram. But he hopes viewers feel more and sense more.

Tomorrow Resonator and Yesterday Resonator is an installation he has made for the Beijing show that uses optical instruments to create bands of colors on the walls. For instance, visitors can see blue but once they close their eyes, they will feel as if they'd just seen purple.

"It's like reading poetry. Read more and you will go deeper, instead of staying on the surface," he says.

Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Eliasson was born in Copenhagen and spent his holidays with family in Iceland in his teenage years, when he watched the northern lights, glaciers and polar days and nights.

Lots of his work focuses on natural elements, exploring people's relationship with nature. He says his artworks are a kind of amplifier of nature to allow people to feel it in a detailed way.

"Lights, water－we always take these things for granted. My works allow people to reconsider their relationship with the world.

"When I was a child, I thought the world would look after me. But now I understand that I have to look after the world, which is being ruined by us," says Eliasson, adding that he cares about climate change.

Yan Shijie, founder of the Red Brick Art Museum and a collector of Eliasson's artworks, says the artist cares about the environment and problems facing humans.

Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Yan started collecting Eliasson's works nearly a decade ago. He visited the artist's studio in Germany several times and was impressed by his work attitude.

Eliasson takes advice from scientists, architects and engineers when working on his art projects.

It took him two years to prepare for the Beijing show. The artist and his team, according to Yan, had set up a miniature space like the museum in Beijing to work on the show before it began.

"Many describe him as a 'scientist artist'. I think science is a kind of language for him to realize his artistic ideas," says Yan.

While in Beijing, the artist carries around a solar-powered lamp to promote his social business Little Sun, a project to provide these lamps to people living in areas that have a shortage of electricity like Ethiopia. He hopes to attract more Chinese people by his art to join in the project to help those in need.

Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, is presenting more than 30 immersive installations, sculptures and paintings at the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Talking about his involvement in social business, the career artist says his art is a kind of motivation to drive people's participation in issues like climate change and environmental protection. Although he encourages people to put down their phones and experience his works, he thanks social media for getting young people to his show.

He has about 267,000 followers on Instagram.

The photos shared by him and his followers bring people to his shows, which, in turn, he says, helps to motivate more people to care about the environment.

Contact the writer at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.cn

If you go

10 am-5:30 pm, through Aug 12. Red Brick Art Museum, Shunbai Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-8457-6669.