Look up: Olafur Eliasson takes visitors to the deep sea at ARTIS-Aquarium

In the rotunda of Amsterdam's historic ARTIS-Aquarium, Olafur Eliasson’s new installation Deep seeing currents changes our expectations and approach to understanding the deep sea, pairing dim, falling light with spatial soundscapes and bodily vibrations.

Look up, it’s the deep sea

Imagining the deep ocean is a fascinating yet unsettling exercise. The reason it is unsettling for many stems from the unknown. Advanced multibeam sonar technology may have mapped roughly 28,7 percent of the seafloor, but human eyes have glimpsed less than 0,001 percent of that vast world firsthand.

Yet is it genuine darkness down there, or is it merely our own blindness that makes it feel that way? In Deep seeing currents, Eliasson probes the fragile space between what we know, what we do not know and what we merely assume.

Where we typically imagine staring down into a dark, terrifying abyss, Eliasson's Deep seeing currents turns the journey overhead. By softening visual distraction, he prompts visitors to look up at the gentle swirling lights, immerse themselves in spatial ocean sounds, feel the physical vibrations underfoot and take active agency over how they construct their experience of reality.

Producing an experience, not just consuming it

Speaking to visitors before they entered the rotunda, Eliasson raised a question central to modern life: are we passively consuming our experiences, or actively producing them?

In a culture where perception is increasingly commercialised, he argues that taking responsibility for how we construct our own reality gives us agency and fuels genuine creativity.

This shift in mindset begins along the curved walls of the rotunda, where a simple black curtain guides visitors into darkening space as the sound gradually builds. Designed to force a physical slowdown, this transition prepares the mind for an artwork entirely distinct from the rest of the zoo and aquarium.

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Stepping into the darkness is not so much a retreat into an art bubble, but an attempt to view the world with heightened clarity. By dampening visual input, Eliasson aims to turn the installation into a sensory microscope, prompting us to navigate what lies beyond our current horizon of knowledge through sound, touch and physical presence.

Ocean soundscapes & falling marine snow

Olafur Eliasson’s artwork relies on spatial sound and light rather than static display. A continuous 12-minute composition guides visitors down through six sonic layers - from the sharp cracking of glaciers to human shipping signals and whale songs, down to hydrothermal vents along the ocean floor.

To construct this journey, Eliasson sourced 55 authentic recordings from scientific archives, including the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Using 4DSOUND technology alongside custom subwoofers and floor transducers hidden beneath a slightly domed floor, the installation turns sound waves into physical vibrations that reverberate through the body.

Overhead, an LED light grid ripples and swirls to reference gently falling "marine snow" - the organic debris that carries carbon and nutrients to the ocean floor. Inspired by marine biologist Rachel Carson's 1951 description of this endless oceanic snowfall in The Sea Around Us, Eliasson uses the phenomenon as an invitation to humility, urging us to recognise the vital ecosystems that exist entirely beyond human sight.

Visiting Deep seeing currents at ARTIS

The installation is now open in the rotunda of the ARTIS-Aquarium in Amsterdam. Entry to Deep seeing currents is included with a standard admission ticket to ARTIS Zoo, making it accessible to both regular visitors and culture-seekers in the Netherlands.

Because the artwork relies heavily on sensory immersion, visitors should keep a few practical details in mind:

• The space is dark, lit only by dim, flashing overhead lights
• Continuous spatial audio and physical vibrations reverberate through the room and floor
• The floor rises into a shallow dome, creating an uneven walking surface underfoot
• Visitors are free to exit the space at any point if the environment feels overwhelming

For opening hours and ticket bookings, visit the official ARTIS website.