A monumental new artwork transforms the Danish sky into an ever-changing canvas
On 19 June 2026, just days before the summer solstice, the Danish city of Aarhus (Jutland) will unveil one of the most significant cultural projects in Northern Europe. At ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, visitors will be able to enter As Seen Below – The Dome, a vast new installation by American artist James Turrell that promises to redefine how we experience light, space, and the Nordic sky. The project is remarkable in several ways. Measuring 16 metres high and 40 metres in diameter, it is the largest Skyspace ever created inside a museum and the most ambitious work in Turrell’s celebrated Skyspace series. It also marks the artist’s 100th Skyspace, a milestone in a body of work that has influenced generations of artists, architects, and designers.
An Artwork Made of Light
Unlike traditional artworks, Turrell’s creations are not paintings or sculptures. Instead, they are carefully designed environments that invite visitors to become aware of perception itself. For more than five decades, Turrell has explored the relationship between light and human experience. His work often challenges viewers to question where architecture ends and light begins, transforming ordinary acts of seeing into something almost meditative. The Skyspace series, which began in the 1970s, is perhaps his most famous achievement. Each Skyspace is an architectural chamber featuring an opening to the sky. Through subtle lighting effects and carefully calibrated proportions, the framed sky appears transformed, becoming an artwork in its own right. As daylight changes, so does the experience. Clouds, sunsets, stars, seasonal shifts, and even passing weather become active participants in the installation.
Entering The Dome
Visitors to As Seen Below – The Dome will begin their journey through a light-filled underground corridor before emerging into an immense circular chamber beneath a domed ceiling. At the centre of the dome is a large oculus—an opening that frames the sky above Aarhus. Sophisticated lighting sequences will interact with natural daylight, creating subtle but powerful colour shifts across the interior space. These effects are particularly dramatic at dawn and dusk, when the changing sky becomes inseparable from the artwork itself. In Turrell’s view, the artwork is not what visitors look at—it is the act of looking itself. Seated on benches around the perimeter or walking across the vast circular floor, visitors will encounter a constantly evolving environment where light appears almost tangible and time seems to slow down.
A New Landmark for Aarhus
The installation forms the centrepiece of The Next Level, a major expansion project for ARoS developed in collaboration with Danish architectural firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen. The expansion significantly enhances one of Scandinavia’s most important museums. ARoS already houses more than 8,000 works of art and attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. The museum is known internationally for iconic installations such as Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama, the circular rainbow-coloured walkway that has become one of Aarhus’ defining landmarks, and Ron Mueck’s monumental sculpture Boy.
The Next Level project also includes:
• The Salling Gallery, an underground exhibition space dedicated to major contemporary commissions.
• Art Square, a new outdoor area designed for large-scale artistic interventions and public engagement.
• New architectural connections that integrate the museum more closely with the surrounding city.
Together, these additions position ARoS among the most ambitious contemporary art destinations in Europe.
James Turrell and the Sky
Born in Los Angeles in 1943, James Turrell is widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential living artists. His work can be found in museums and landscapes across the globe, from New York and California to Japan, Australia, and Europe. Many art enthusiasts know him not only for his Skyspaces but also for Roden Crater, a vast ongoing project in the Arizona desert where he is transforming an extinct volcano into a naked-eye observatory for celestial phenomena. The project has occupied much of his life since the 1970s and reflects a fascination with light, astronomy, and human perception that also lies at the heart of As Seen Below.
A Nordic Experience of Light
There may be few places more suitable for a Skyspace than Denmark. Across the Nordic region, changing daylight shapes daily life and cultural identity. Long summer evenings, dramatic winter darkness, shifting weather, and expansive skies have inspired generations of Nordic artists, architects, and writers. Turrell’s new installation engages directly with these qualities. Rather than presenting a fixed artwork, it creates a framework through which visitors can experience the sky itself. Every visit will be different. A bright summer evening, a stormy autumn afternoon, a winter sunset, or a clear night filled with stars will each transform the space in unique ways. In that sense, As Seen Below – The Dome is not simply an art installation. It is a meeting point between architecture, nature, and human perception—a place where the Danish sky becomes both subject and medium. When it opens in June 2026, Aarhus will gain more than a new attraction. It will gain a new way of looking at the world above.
Suggested Online Sources
ARoS Aarhus Art Museum – As Seen Below
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
