WeTransfer, our favourite file transfer service, just added another creative string to its bow with the announcement of 2024’s annual guest curator, the Icelandic–Danish artist Olafur Eliasson.
This partnership with an artist famed for his focus on environmental issues also highlights WeTransfer’s newly elevated B Corp score, the rating that grades companies that meet ‘high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency’. Eliasson will use the WePresent arts platform to showcase work by artists who are dedicated to highlighting the climate crisis.
Back in April, Eliasson took to WePresent to publish ‘10 rules for celebrating food’, part of the site’s ongoing A Manifesto By series. As the site’s latest guest curator, Eliasson joins a list that includes the artist Marina Abramovic, musician Solange Knowles and actor and art collector Russell Tovey.
Eliasson will give a number of new voices a place on the WePresent platform, addressing not just the climate crisis but ‘adjacent issues which he views as deeply interconnected’. These will include the little-discussed issue of climate justice, along with systemic racism and gender politics.
‘I’m grateful to WeTransfer for inviting me to be the guest curator of this year,’ Eliasson says. ‘WePresent is a vibrant space that is both personal and boundless – something I find particularly valuable in 2024. Together, we hope to amplify voices addressing the pressing issues of our time.’
As Eliasson notes in his opening editor's letter, ‘Artists, musicians, writers, dancers, performers – they all give shape to the complexity of our present moment and can speak to us directly as individuals.' Confirmed collaborations include the art director Sarah Masete, artist Hadeer Omar, and writer and theorist Neema Githere, 'all [of whom] address complexity and host discussions that I find deeply inspiring', according to Eliasson. 'I am extremely pleased to work as a guest curator with WeTransfer to further amplify their crucial voices, to spark important discussion and inspire others.'
WePresent finds a monthly audience of around 3 million people across 190 countries, while the file transfer platform itself has a user base of over 80 million people. ‘We're committed to amplifying the voices of artists who use their platforms to do good, and Olafur Eliasson is exemplary,’ says Holly Fraser, VP of Content at WeTransfer. ‘He has long been a champion of sustainability, climate activism and the need for collective change.’
Olafur Eliasson, OlafurEliasson.net, @StudioOlafurEliasson
