Q&A: Artist Olafur Eliasson on How You Should Light Your Living Room

Olafur Eliasson is happy to talk about the weather. Over coffee at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, the conversation moves quickly from pleasantries about the rain to the profound sociobiological effects of sunlight on the human body. The leap is not surprising. The Danish-Icelandic artist—long based in Berlin—has made the perception of natural phenomena the center of his practice for decades, illuminating social forces through the manipulation of natural ones, often on a grand scale.