A Sky Of Its Own: Turrell’s Monumental Dome At Aros

On June 19 2026, Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city, will invited a landmark dissimilar immoderate other: ‘As Seen Below – The Dome’, a Skyspace by celebrated creator James Turrell, opens to nan nationalist astatine nan ARoS Art Museum.

This is nary mean installation – astatine 40 metres successful diameter and 16 metres tall, it’s Turrell’s largest Skyspace ever built wrong a museum.

From Underground to nan Heavens

Visitors will descend done a subtly lit passageway earlier arriving successful nan vast, domed chamber. Turrell’s signature lighting bathes nan abstraction successful shifting hues, framing nan entity done a cardinal oculus. According to nan artist, this isn’t conscionable astir images – “I americium shaping nan very acquisition of seeing,” he says.

A Vision Realised

This dome culminates ARoS’s decade-long description plan, known arsenic ‘The Next Level’, developed successful business pinch Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. As depository head Rebecca Matthews puts it, it will induce visitors to slow down, raise their gaze, and bespeak connected light, space, and time.

Light, Time and Nature successful Harmony

The installation is peculiarly evocative astatine sunrise and sunset, erstwhile programmed ray sequences align pinch earthy rhythms to create a meditative consciousness of unity betwixt architecture, sky, and season. Turrell describes this synchronisation arsenic much than effect – it’s a measurement of making nan enactment of looking itself nan work.

City Pride, Global Ambition

Rabih Azad-Ahmad, Aarhus’ Alderman for Culture, believes this dome will go a caller taste icon: “A dream will travel existent … Aarhus is astir to summation different spectacular attraction of absolute world class.” Mayor Anders Winnerskjold echoes this pride, saying nan task strengthens nan city’s personality and elevates ARoS’s opinionated connected nan world creation stage.

Turrell, Revisited

For Turrell, this is not conscionable a building – it’s a heavy exploration of perception. “The architecture brings nan entity close,” he reflects, transforming nan elemental enactment of looking into a shared, profoundly quality experience.

Looking Ahead

When ‘As Seen Below’ opens successful June 2026, it will people much than nan completion of a building project: it will beryllium a infinitesimal of corporate pause. For Aarhus, it’s a milestone successful taste ambition; for visitors, a abstraction to re-encounter light, sky, and self.