At the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark, James Turrell’s As Seen Below – The Dome completes a major expansion and enters into a dialogue with another permanent collection work that is also part of the museum’s architecture.
As Seen Below is a Skyspace, a meticulously designed site-specific room with an opening that frames the sky. Turrell has been making Skyspaces since the 1970s, and As Seen Below is the 100th as well as the largest. The chamber comprises a massive underground dome 40 meters in diameter and 16 meters high, with a 6-meter oculus. Visitors enter through a light-filled tunnel into the circular space.
The light inside transitions throughout the day. In Open Sky mode, the oculus remains open to frame the sky as a pure field of color. In Colour Shift–hourly during the summer and every two hours during the rest of the year–the opening closes and the space is saturated with light until its physical boundaries seem to fade. During Twilight, the oculus opens as precisely calibrated lights blend with the changing natural light, altering depth perception until the line between the artificial glow and open air is dissolved.
“The architecture brings the sky close, so you realise that the very act of seeing is the artwork itself.” – James Turrell
While As Seen Below is concealed beneath a grassy mound, Ólafur Elíasson’s Your rainbow panorama is visible above the skyline, raised on slender columns 3.5 meters above the museum’s roof. The 52-meter-wide ring encircles the brick cube building, with a continuous 150-meter circular walkway of colored glass spanning the full spectrum.
Your rainbow panorama connects ARoS to the city, making it a distinctive landmark and inviting visitors to stroll and look outward, filtering 360-degree views of Aarhus through shifting chromatic hues. Elíasson’s work emphasizes subjective perception, as each viewer’s unique position literally colors the world around them.
“This uncertainty is important to me, as it encourages people to think and sense beyond the limits within which they are accustomed to function.” – Ólafur Elíasson
Together, Turrell’s and Elíasson’s works anchor ARoS from opposite points. While As Seen Below isolates a single view of the sky from a quiet, atmospheric space below, Your rainbow panorama uses light and color to transform its surroundings. With one carved into the earth and the other suspended above the roof, both installations open the museum to the sky to immerse visitors in color, light, and space.