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Restaurant by Olafur Eliasson Opens at the Tate Modern

The Icelandic artist transforms the museum’s Terrace Bar into his Berlin kitchen and serves up vegetarian meals

By Lucy Rees
People dining at a modern restaurant with red-lit glass walls and geometric pendant lights.
Installation view of Tate Modern’s Terrace Bar featuring artworks and lamps by Olafur Eliasson. Photo: Anders Sune Berg

Man with glasses and beard in a workshop, wearing a shirt and posing with hand on hip, surrounded by wooden structures.
Olafur Eliasson. Runa Maya Mørk Huber / Studio Olafur Eliasson

Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson might be best known for his impactful, environmentally concerned artworks, such as The Weather Project, where he flooded Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall with fake sunlight. But he’s equally passionate about food. Every day in his Berlin studio, located in a massive former brewery, Eliasson’s staff congregates at long tables for a multicourse vegetarian meal cooked on-site by a team of chefs.

Guests frequently drop by, including his neighbor Ai Weiwei and René Redzepi, of Noma fame, to name a few. Eliasson is also the author of Studio Olafur Eliasson: The Kitchen (Phaidon), which is filled with recipes, poetry, and musings from the studio. This summer, art lovers will get the chance to experience his culinary philosophy at Tate Modern, which is hosting a major retrospective that brings together more than 30 works from three decades of his practice. 

Modern art gallery with a yellow installation, suspended log, and photographs on white walls with wooden floors.
Installation view of “Olafur Eliasson: In Real Life” at Tate Modern. Anders Sune Berg

People dining in a modern restaurant with red-lit windows and geometric pendant lights.
Installation view of Tate Modern’s Terrace Bar featuring artworks and lamps by Olafur Eliasson. Anders Sune Berg

Coinciding with the show, Eliasson will turn the museum’s Terrace Bar into a version of his Berlin kitchen. Fuel up on vibrant, vegetarian-focused dishes sourced from local farms before exploring the dynamic works in the exhibition, including a disorienting, nearly 150-foot tunnel of dense fog and his Room for One Colour.

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A variety of foods including bread, soup, cherry tomatoes, pickles, and sauces arranged on a dark table.
Baby turnip, baby radish, golden beetroot house ferments. Labneh with borage, whipped butter, roasted red pepper humous and red pepper dip served with rye sourdough or focaccia and spiced carrot soup with toasted grains and preserved lemon served at the Terrace Bar as part of Studio Olafur Eliasson Kitchen’s collaboration with Tate Eats. Alcuin Stevenson / Studio Olafur Eliasson

Abstract spherical sculpture with intricate patterns casting colorful light shadows on walls and floor in an art gallery.
Olafur Eliasson, In real life, 2019. Anders Sune Berg; Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles

People walking through a hallway lit with yellow lights, creating a bright and colorful atmosphere.
Olafur Eliasson Room for One Colour, 1997. Installation view at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, 2011. Dmitry Baranov; Courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles

Person walking through a reflective, geometric tunnel in a modern art gallery setting with wooden floors.
Olafur Eliasson, Your Spiral View, 2002. Installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, 2002. Jens Ziehel; Boros Collection, Berlin

Art installation featuring geometric sculptures and wireframes in a glass room with a person observing the display.
Olafur Eliasson in collaboration with Einar Thorsteinn, Model room, 2003. Anders Sune Berg; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Purchase 2015 funded by The Anna-Stina Malmborg and Gunnar Höglund Foundation

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2019 Summer issue in the section The Artful Life. Subscribe to the magazine.