Counter-Spectacle, Anti-Spectacle, Olympic Spectacle: Olafur Eliasson’s Commission(s) for the London 2012 Festival

This article examines the role that the London 2012 Festival played in constructing and contesting the 2012 Olympic spectacle by considering two projects proposed by Danish-Icelandic artist, Olafur Eliasson: Take a deep breath and Olafur Eliasson: Little Sun. I propose that the former, which failed to gain funding and never made it onto the Festival line-up, would have produced a ‘counter-spectacle’ to the Olympic spectacle, should it have come to fruition. I contend that the latter, produced at London’s Tate Modern, provided an ‘anti-spectacle’ to the Olympic spectacle. The article considers what the respective ‘failure’ and ‘success’ of these projects begins to unveil about current developments in art, performance and global spectacle. I argue that while both projects aimed to challenge and diffuse the state-centrism of the Olympic Games, they are also indicative of the London 2012 Festival’s legitimisation of spectacle, rather than its contestation.