Olafur Eliasson Brings Sunlight Back to Tate Modern LONDON - The last time that the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson worked at the Tate Modern here, he set a giant fake sun (yellow lamps, mirrors, smoke) shining over the museum's massive Turbine Hall. That 2003 installation, called "The Weather Project," drew more than two million (yes, two million) people, who lay on the floor during the usual damp, cold British winter and basked in the fake sunlight and a sense of communal warmth. On Thursday, Mr. Eliasson and the Tate Modern announced the "Little Sun," project, a part of the London 2012 festival that is the culmination of the cultural Olympiad. Instead of bringing millions of people to the artwork, Mr. Eliasson has produced an object - made of hard yellow plastic in the shape of a sunflower - that he hopes will reach millions. "Little sun" is a powerful solar-powered light, developed by Mr Eliasson with the engineer Frederik Ottesen, and intended for use wherever there are people without access to electricity. Since this is the Tate, there is also some necessary art-related activity: every Saturday night from July 28 to September 23, visitors will be able to participate in after-hours blackouts in the museum, during which they can look at works of art in the Tate's surrealist galleries by the light of the Little Sun - an echo, pointed out Nicholas Serota, the director of the Tate Museums, of Man Ray's distribution of flashlights for viewing at the 1938 surrealist exhibition in Paris. Viewers will, however, have to buy their own Little Suns; at £16.50 or around $25, they will help fund the Little Suns offered at less than half that price in developing countries. "How is this art rather than design?" demanded journalists as the press conference to launch the project. Why don't you just sell them at Ikea? Mr. Eliasson was unfazed. "This is my playground," he said. Everyone wants a beautiful object. The fact that there is a business model here doesn't exclude it being art. In fact, the business model, the delivery and sense of community is also the artwork. Mr. Eliasson was less cheerful when asked about the controversy that had surrounded the early phases of the project, when his initial proposition, which involved recording people breathing had its $1.6 million funding application turned down by the Olympic Lottery distributor. The current project has been financed by Mr. Eliasson and Mr. Ottensen themselves, as well as by the Tate. "That was an aspect of the original project, and it was miscommunicated by the press, which made things very difficult and so we decided not to continue," he said. It wasn't a decision from above. There were 10 or 15 stages of the project, which always had a focus on community, what art can do in the real world. Ruth MacKenzie, the director of the London 2012 festival, added later that "it would be a mistake" to see the Olympic Lottery Distributor's decision not to fund Mr. Eliasson's project as related to the negative press coverage. "There were plenty of projects they didn't fund," she said. As things progressed, they decided that it no longer met their criteria.