2010-07-29

PRESS RELEASE

Olafur Eliasson creates the 2010 Textile of the Year for Märta Måås-Fjetterström.

We are proud to announce that the internationally renowned artist Olafur Eliasson has created the design
for the 2010 Textile of the Year. The unique textile artwork has been woven in Båstad during the spring.
The result – The green glass carpet – will be revealed today in Båstad, Sweden.

Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB, the studio for textile art, has been the hub of the development of textile art in Sweden
since the studio was founded in 1919. In 2002 the art weaving studio initiated a new tradition by which an artist is
provided with the opportunity to design a textile artwork which is woven in a single, unique copy. In 2002 the prize
was awarded to Marie-Louise Ekman, in 2003 to Elis Ernst Eriksson, in 2004 to Jockum Nordström, in 2005 to
Maria Miesenberger, in 2006 to Charlotte Gyllenhammar, in 2007 to Jens Fänge and in 2008 to Cecilia Edefalk.

Last year Märta Måås-Fjetterström's artistic advisory committee expanded its field to also include nominees from the
Nordic countries by awarding the prize to H M Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. In 2010, the artistic advisory committee
continues on the course, as this year’s winner is the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

Born in 1967 in Copenhagen to Icelandic parents, Olafur Eliasson studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson as a laboratory for spatial research in Berlin. Eliasson represented
Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and later that year installed The weather project in the Turbine Hall of
Tate Modern, London. Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, a survey exhibition organised by San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art, travelled to further venues until 2010. His solo exhibition Innen Stadt Außen (Inner City Out) opened at the
Martin-Gropius-Bau in 2010, with interventions across Berlin developing a public dimension to the show. Eliasson has
engaged in a number of projects in public space, including Green river, carried out in various cities between 1998 and
2001; The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2007, designed with the architect Kjetil Thorsen; and The New York City Waterfalls,
commissioned by Public Art Fund in 2008. As professor at Universität der Künste Berlin, Olafur Eliasson founded the
Institut für Raumexperimente (Institute for Spatial Experiments) in 2009.

Bo Nilsson of MMF's artistic advisory committee comments on the winner:
"Olafur Eliasson is doubtless one of contemporary art's most influential artists. His field of activities spans from
photography to installation, architecture and, more recently, film. With his versatility in a multitude of media, he combines
age-old craftsmanship with high technologies that challenge our modes of perceiving and our conceptions of space and
time. Olafur Eliasson is thus no stranger to the textile art form represented by Måås-Fjetterström. We look forward with
great excitement to his contribution."

The 2010 Textile of the Year by Olafur Eliasson – The green glass carpet – has been woven by three of Märta Måås-
Fjetterström's art weavers and is today revealed in Båstad, Sweden.

For further information, please contact:
Angelica Persson, CEO Märta Måås-Fjetterström AB, tel +46 (0)431-701 83
E-mail: angelica.persson@mmf.se