Olafur Eliasson: Little Sun

Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen launched on kickstarter a solar-powered lamp that ”transforms the light that is for all of us into light that is for each of us”.

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“Around 1.6 billion people worldwide currently live without access to the electrical grid.

Many rely on kerosene lanterns for lighting, but kerosene is expensive and a health hazard. A ten-year-old doing her homework in the evening to the light of a wick-based kerosene lantern breathes in an amount of pollution equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes per day.

Olafur Eliasson and Frederik Ottesen, Little Sun. **Top**: Photo Franziska Russo © 2014 Little Sun. **Above**: Photo: Borkur Arnarson © 2012 Little Sun

By replacing kerosene lanterns with Little Sun lamps, a family living off-grid can reduce their lighting energy costs by 90% over two years – and receive 10 times stronger and better quality light. Five hours of natural sunlight converts to a full evening of Little Sun light. Little Sun makes light for living – for cooking, eating, for reading, writing, for looking, for looking at. It is the foundation for studying, for social encounters, aesthetic experiences, work, and commerce.

Little Sun is a response to our present situation, where natural resources are no longer abundant. Energy shortage and unequal energy distribution demand that we reconsider how our life-sustaining systems function. I see Little Sun as a wedge to open up this urgent discussion from the perspective of art, to raise awareness about energy access and the unequal distribution of energy today.” Olafur Eliasson