The City of Aarhus and ARoS Aarhus Art Museum announced today that the museum’s new monumental artwork - titled by the artist As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell - will open to the public on 19 June 2026. The work will be James Turrell’s largest Skyspace in a museum context and completes ARoS’s long-standing vision, The Next Level.

Rabih Azad-Ahmad, Alderman for Culture and Citizen Services in the City of Aarhus and the project’s client, says:

“A dream will come true when As Seen Below by James Turrell is completed next year, and we can show just how impressive this artwork truly is. Look forward to it - Aarhus is about to gain another spectacular attraction of absolute world class. It will stand as a new landmark for both ARoS and Aarhus as a cultural city with international ambitions,” says the alderman.

He is joined by Aarhus Mayor Anders Winnerskjold:
“ARoS is a powerful image of the development of modern Aarhus. It impresses in form and content, and with the historic vision and expansion we are witnessing, we are strengthening the museum’s position in the international top tier—and, with it, the city’s image. I look to the opening with great pride and high expectations,” says the Mayor.

A monumental work by an internationally acclaimed artist

The large, domed artwork measures 16 metres in height and 40 metres in diameter. Visitors arrive via an underground, light-filled corridor before entering the vast interior dome, where Turrell’s signature lighting bathes the space in colour and light, framing the open sky through a central oculus. James Turrell states:

“This artwork has been many years in the making, and I am pleased that it will open to the public at the summer solstice in 2026. I look forward to seeing how audiences meet and interact with the work—my largest and most ambitious Skyspace in a public museum to date,” says the American artist.

The experience of As Seen Below is especially resonant at sunrise and sunset, when timed light sequences anchor the visit in the rhythms of nature—binding light, space and time into one coherent encounter.

“With As Seen Below I shape the very experience of seeing, rather than simply delivering an image. The architecture brings the sky close, so you recognise that the act of looking is itself the work,” explains James Turrell.

The Next Level – a long-standing vision realised

The opening of As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell completes ARoS’s long-held vision The Next Level, created in collaboration with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. The project also comprises The Salling Gallery, which opened in June 2025—a groundbreaking new underground exhibition space dedicated to annual contemporary art commissions—and Art Square, a permanent outdoor area for art in the public realm, opening alongside As Seen Below in 2026.

Rebecca Matthews, Museum Director of ARoS, says:
“We are delighted to announce that As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell will open to the public in June 2026—an occasion that will mark a major milestone in the history of ARoS. We are proud that our museum will be home to James Turrell’s most significant Skyspace to date—an extraordinary work that invites visitors to slow down, lift their gaze and experience light, time and space in deeply moving ways. This is not only a remarkable artwork for ARoS, but also a new cultural landmark for Aarhus.”