ARoS is expanding to offer visitors new spaces for art and immersive experiences.
Video: Schmidt Hammer Lassen
The monumental artwork The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell, is a permanent and site-specific installation by one of the world’s leading artists of the light and space movement. Visitors can also look forward to a new underground gallery dedicated to contemporary art, and a public art square, activating ARoS’ outdoor spaces with new commissions and events.
The expansion The Next Level reinforces ARoS’ position as one of the world’s leading museums for installation art.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
The project has been under development for more than 10 years and from the very beginning involved a vision of adding a new artwork to the ARoS collectiion by an artist working in large scale to create unique environments.
Three museum directors – Jens Erik Sørensen, Erlend Høyersten, and Rebecca Matthews – have contributed to the concept and realization of the project with Schmidt Hammer Lassen as architect and consultant in close collaboration with Aarhus Municipality as building owner and developer.
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The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell
The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell is a vast work of art consisting of a circular indoor space extending to 16 metres in height and 40 metres in diameter.
Hand drawing by James Turrell
The journey to the artwork starts at ARoS Level 3 and will take you down ramps under the ground. To prepare your senses for the monumental Skyspace, visitors will journey through a 100 metre long corridor, lit by James Turrell and forming an immersive prelude to entering The Dome.
James Turrell's distinctive lighting will wash the entire domed space, changing one’s perception of space and of the sky, seen through the six-metre-wide central aperture.
Seating will be installed in a large circle running along the inside of the dome where visitors can spend time together to contemplate the sky and experience how colours and light affect our perception of space, time and human interaction.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
About James Turrell
American artist James Turrell (b. 1943) is an internationally acclaimed pioneer of the light and space movement. Since the 1960’s Turrell – who is an educated psychologist himself – has explored the use of light and how it can expand human perception and our understanding of the world.
James Turrell. Photo: Morten Faurby
James Turrell's work has no image and no object and often no specific place to focus. Instead he seeks to materialize light and color to become physical elements.
Often James Turrell works with the so-called Ganzfeld effect, which occurs when the entire retina is stimulated by uniform light so that it becomes impossible to define one's surroundings. In James Turrell's context, the term can be seen as a poetic reminder of the conflict between human rationality and emotions.
James Turrell, Milkrun III, 2002. Courtesy ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum. Donation from Kirsten & Palle Diges Fond. Ole Hein Pedersen (TBC)
James Turrell has exhibited his work at art museums around the world, and his monumental and immersive installations can be found in more than 26 countries. Turrell’s light installation Milkrun III (2002) has been part of ARoS' collection since 2004.
The Next Level is realized with generous support from
- The Salling Foundations
- The Carlsberg Foundation
- A private anonymous donation
- The City of Aarhus
- ARoS Aarhus Art Museum