在这幅名为“一匹马艰难求生”的作品中，艺术家以强烈的情感张力刻画出生命在困境中的挣扎。画面中的马匹并不奔腾，而是踉跄、低头，仿佛负重前行于一片荒芜之地。它的身体消瘦、毛发凌乱，眼神中透露出疲惫与倔强，像是在与无形的力量抗衡。这不仅是对动物处境的写实描绘，更是一种隐喻——代表着个体在逆境中的坚持与脆弱。背景或许是一片风暴来临前的灰色天空，或是寸草不生的土地，进一步加剧了整体的压迫感。这匹马既是现实的存在，也是一种象征，象征着挣扎中的人性、希望未泯的灵魂。艺术家通过这幅作品，引导观者凝视生命的边缘状态，感受那种虽摇摇欲坠却仍不肯倒下的力量。

Usually when a museum is flooded with water, something has gone seriously wrong. But at the Fondation Beyeler just outside the Swiss city of Basel, the flooding of the museum is all part of the show: a new site-specific installation called Life by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

The artist has removed one side of the Renzo Piano-designed building (with the architect’s blessing) and let the feature pond—usually separated from the climate-controlled interior by a large glass wall—into the museum. Visitors can navigate the waters, which are up to 80cm deep, using a series of walkways that run in and out of the building. At night, the interior is lit up with blue light.

Eliasson has also dyed the water a fluorescent green and filled it with pond plants, including water lilies and shellflowers selected by the landscape architect Günther Vogt. The water has been coloured using uranine, an organic dye that is commonly used to observe water currents, and which Eliasson has used previously for his Green River (1998) work where he dyed rivers in cities such as Stockholm, Tokyo and Los Angeles.

In an accompanying artist statement, Eliasson writes: “Together with the museum, I am giving up control over the artwork, so to speak, handing it over to human and non-human visitors, to plants, microorganisms, the weather, the climate—many of these elements that museums usually work very hard to keep out.”

The southern side of the building will be open to the elements for the duration of the show, which ends in July. Eliasson writes that “even if no human visitors are in the space, other beings—insects, bats, or birds, for instance—can fly through or take up temporary abode within it.” This possibility is very much part of the work, with the artist adding that when he first spoke to the museum’s director Sam Keller about ideas for the show, he thought to himself: “Why don’t we invite everyone to the show? Let’s invite the planet—plants and various species”.

The show is open 24 hours a day. “Visitors can access the installation at any time. After 9.30pm they do not need a ticket,” says a spokeswoman. She adds that, in terms of non-human visitors, so far there have been “insects, spiders, ducks, a goose and cats.”