Release Date
3.11.2013

Olafur Eliasson’s Little Sun solar-powered lamp on display at the Mehrangarh Museum of Art, Jodhpur, shedding light on the global energy crisis

The Mehrangarh Museum of Art, Jodhpur, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Little Sun—a solar-powered LED lamp developed by world-renowned artist Olafur Eliasson and solar engineer Frederik Ottesen as an effort to provide clean, affordable light to the 1.6 billion people worldwide without access to electricity. The Little Sun lamp comes in the form of a yellow hand-sized sun. Little Sun’s sustainable solar-powered light allows people in off-grid areas to study, cook dinner, work, socialize and continue their daily activities into the night without relying on toxic kerosene lamps. Little Sun is a work of art that works in life.

The Little Sun exhibition features more than 200 Little Sun lamps and a series of 16 Little Sun short films, first shown at London’s Tate Modern in 2012. The Mehrangarh Museum of Art hosts the exhibition in Jodhpur, Rajasthan (also known as India’s “Sun City”) during the Jodhpur One World Retreat (March 8-10). The exhibition opens to the public on Monday, March 11 and runs through April. At the conclusion of the exhibition, the Little Suns will be donated to the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation of His Highness, Maharaja Gaj Singh II, to be distributed to remote villages and institutions in Rajasthan.

According to the artist, Little Sun is not just a lamp, but a global project addressing the international energy crisis by providing light to the people who need it most. In addition, the Little Sun project helps start up small businesses that can sell Little Sun lamps in areas of the world without electricity, which creates local jobs and generates local profits. Little Sun aims to spread light, safe energy and profits everywhere.

The Little Sun films were created in response to an invitation from Olafur Eliasson to produce works about light, energy and the Little Sun project. The program includes films by Alejo Moquillansky (Argentina), PERU ANA ANA PERU (USA), Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand), Dominga Sotomayor (Chile), Hawa Essuman (Kenya), Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda), Man Kit Lam (The Netherlands), Natasha Mendonca (India), Omelga Mthiyane (South Africa), Oscar Ruiz Navia (Colombia), Peter Tukei Muhumuza (Uganda), Sherman Ong (Malaysia) and Susan Youssef (USA).

Since the early 1990s, Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has continually pursued ideas of sharing and sensing space, creating visually stunning works that connect art and life. His iconic installation The weather project at Tate Modern, London, was seen by more than two million people, and his critically acclaimed artworks have appeared in and been collected by major museums around the world since 1997. Projects in public space include the New York City Waterfalls, commissioned by Public Art Fund in 2008, with the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Eliasson is a professor at Berlin University of the Arts.

"Little Sun transforms the light that is for all of us into light that is for each of us. Light determines what we do and how we do it. Little Sun is a wedge that opens up the urgent discussion of bringing sustainable energy to all from the perspective of art." – Olafur Eliasson

Organization and Support
The Little Sun exhibition is organized by the Mehrangarh Museum of Art, Jodhpur, in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Exhibition curators are Christine Starkman, curator of Asian Art: Ancient to Contemporary at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Karni Singh Jasol, Director of the Mehrangarh Museum of Art, Jodhpur.

Generous funding is provided by Mehrangarh Museum Trust with additional support from Little Sun Company, Olafur Eliasson, Dr. and Mrs. Durga Agrawal and Lisa and Craig Wilson.

About the Mehrangarh Museum Trust
Mehrangarh Museum Trust is India's leading cultural institution and centre of excellence, established in 1972 by the 36th Custodian of Marwar- Jodhpur, H. H. Maharaja Gaj Singhji, who brought the fort alive to visitors. Today Mehrangarh Museum has a unique importance as a repository of the artistic and cultural history of the large areas of Central Rajasthan and Marwar-Jodhpur, ruled by the Rathore Dynasty. The Museum displays one of the most important and best preserved collections of fine and applied arts from the Mughal period of Indian history, during which the Rathore rulers of Jodhpur maintained close links with the Mughal Emperors. Apart from the Museum, the Trust is at the forefront of conservation and restoration, a generous patron of the arts and music and a lively centre of academic study.  The Mehrangarh Museum Trust is a recipient of the UNESCO ASIA-PACIFIC Award in the field of architectural conservation, cultural heritage and adaptive reuse.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States. Located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH comprises two gallery buildings, a sculpture garden, theater, two art schools and two libraries, with two house museums, for American and European decorative arts, nearby. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers some 64,000 works and embraces the art of antiquity to the present. For more information, visit mfah.org.