- Olafur Eliasson presents a 10-day "symphony" at Memory Grove in Salt Lake City.
- The piece, featuring natural sights and sounds curated into an experience, highlights Great Salt Lake's importance.
- The fee event runs nightly at 9 p.m. from March 26 to April 4.
Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — Olafur Eliasson doesn't travel much anymore, but he remembers feeling at home when he visited the Great Salt Lake's vastness when he made a pilgrimage to Robert Smithson's iconic Spiral Jetty.
Having grown up in Iceland and Denmark, he'd spend his free time hiking, climbing and doing anything else imaginable in wide swaths of open space.
"I could easily identify with these barren lands. ... There was this wide landscape, but you stand in front of it, and you wonder, 'Is this now two hours or two days to go to that rock? Is that a small mountain close by or is that a big mountain far away?'" he said, recalling his first visit. "The scale is so unusual. ... I felt actually quite close to the landscape."
That experience partially influenced the world-renowned artist's latest venture, which uses Great Salt Lake's nature in a new way to highlight its importance. It will be temporarily on display at Memory Grove in Salt Lake City, 300 N. Canyon Road, beginning on March 26.
Eliasson, known for pieces like "The Weather Project," "New York City Waterfalls" and others that blend the environment in public spaces, uses a large balloon — approximately 30 to 40 feet in diameter — that will project a nearly 30-minute "visual journey" about the lake in his Great Salt Lake piece, he explained to members of the Great Salt Lake Collaborative on Wednesday.
He also teamed up with UK-based music producer Lewis Roberts, known by his stage name Koreless, to take the sounds of Great Salt Lake water and wildlife to complete the experience.
Together, "A symphony of disappearing sounds for the Great Salt Lake" is a natural concert that seeks to highlight the lake's other residents, providing them a unified voice.
"I call it a symphony, as if there was an orchestra of all these animals playing together," Eliasson said. "I wouldn't call it music, but I would also not call it not music ... and I do think one could dance to it."
The point, he said, is to remind residents of the joy that still exists along the lake, even as it creeps closer to its lowest point on record. The impacts of its decline might be overwhelming, but he believes this concept can spark hope rather than piling onto the gloom.
By focusing on the unique creatures that rely on the lake, he believes it could help people to react by taking steps to preserve the lake rather than assuming it's a lost cause.
"It does seem to be something that can also be reversed again," he adds.
His symphony is also literally the swan song for Salt Lake City's "Wake the Great Salt Lake" project, which is wrapping up after providing lake-focused art pieces over the past year.
Salt Lake City received a $1 million grant in 2023 to fund temporary art projects that highlight the lake, which was used on a dozen different projects scattered in and around the city. Eliasson's piece is a fitting end to the series, translating a complex issue into memorable experiences that convey the lake's importance, said Felicia Baca, director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council.
"We wanted to imagine hopeful futures and the things that could be," she said. "It was really important to invite him and also have that more global conversation."
"A symphony of disappearing sounds for the Great Salt Lake" will be on display at Memory Grove every night at 9 p.m. through April 4. The event is free, but organizers recommend that people reserve a free ticket online to be aware of any event notifications.
They also recommend that people park at the Utah Capitol and use the trail to the park.
