As Seen Below is a Skyspace and an artwork in the ARoS collection created by the American artist James Turrell. Owing to its scale, quality, and unique expression, Turrell himself describes it as his most ambitious Skyspace to date.  

The work reveals that human vision is not like an objective camera. What we see inside arises through the controlled meeting of light, space, and the senses.   

As Seen Below will open on June 19, 2026.  

What is a Skyspace?  

A Skyspace is an architectural space with an opening to the sky – a simple idea that makes for a profound experience. Turrell’s Skyspaces can be found in more than 26 countries, inviting us to slow down and perceive the world anew.  

“The architecture brings the sky close, so you realise that the very act of seeing is the artwork itself.”  
– James Turrell  

How to experience As Seen Below 

Open Sky  
In Open Sky mode, the great domed chamber appears limitless with an open view of the sky. The space removes familiar points of reference, allowing the sky to appear as a pure field of colour, intense and immediate. Open Sky is the work in its simplest form and is typically how you will encounter it upon arrival. From June 20 you can experience Open Sky during the museum's opening hours. No reservation is required for this. 

Colour Shift  
In Colour Shift, the opening to the sky is sealed, transforming the nature of the experience. Here, it is no longer the sky that takes centre stage, but light and colour. With the open sky removed from view, our attention focuses on the space itself: walls dissolve into light, and the space appears to shift.
Here, light is revealed as something tangible – not merely as illumination, but as a material that both shapes and permeates the space around you.
From June 20, you can experience Colour Shift every second hour during the museum's opening hours. No reservation is required for this. 

Twilight
You can experience something truly special in As Seen Below during the transitions between day and night. In Twilight, the aperture is open to the sky, and the light within the Skyspace gradually changes colour. As Turrell shapes the context of vision through shifting hues inside the Skyspace, the colour of the sky seemingly changes with them, moment by moment. As he says: "I can change the sky to any colour you want."
Here, light shapes how you see, forging a direct connection between the dome, your gaze, and the sky above.

Reserve your spot here

James Turrell

For more than half a century, the American artist James Turrell (b. 1943) has worked with light, space and the sky. As a young man, James Turrell trained as a pilot and spent countless hours in the air. His encounters with the sky’s atmosphere of shifting colours and vast openness became formative for his artistic vision. 

In the 1960s he became a central figure in California’s Light and Space movement. He trained in both, art and the psychology of perception. 

Turrell’s work with light is often compared to that of the Renaissance artists who transformed our understanding of space and vision. Yet where the old masters painted light to create a sense of space, Turrell uses light into space to put you "into the painting".

A long-standing vision

As Seen Below forms together with the subterranean exhibition space Salling Galleriet and a new outdoor Art Square the culmination of ARoS’ long-standing vision The Next Level.  

The project has been under developemtn for more than 10 years and from the very beginning involved a vision of adding a new artwork to the ARoS collection by an artist working in large scale to create unique environments.  

Three museum directors – Jens Erik Sørensen, Erlend Høyersted, and Rebecca Matthews – have contributed to the concept and realisation of the project with Schmidt Hammer Lassen as architect and consultant in close collaboration with Aarhus Municipality as building owner and developer.    

The Next Level has been realised with generous support from the Salling Foundations, the New Carlsberg Foundations, Aarhus Municipality, ARoS and a private anonymous donation.