3_0_ScanMag_66_July_2014_Text_Svetlana:Scan Magazine 1
27/6/14
10:18
Page 99
Scan Magazine | Culture | Aarhus Art Museum
Top: Your rainbow panorama hovering over central Aarhus by night (Photo: Axel Schütt). Middle: Boy by Australian artist Ron Mueck (Photo: Poul Ib Henriksen)
Built to awe and inspire Hovering like a halo over the rooftops of central Aarhus, Your rainbow panorama has been the new iconic landmark of the city’s skyline for the past three years. Whether gleaming in the rays of the afternoon sun behind the stern grey marble city hall tower or illuminated like a beacon over the dark silhouettes of buildings at night, the circular glass structure is visible from every part of the City of Smiles. The artwork is the creation of the famous Dano-Icelandic artist Olafur Elíasson, and it spans the entire roof of ARoS – the Aarhus Art Museum. By Marjorie de los Angeles Mendieta | Photos: ARoS / Ole Hein Pedersen
Already from the onset in 2004, the new ARoS building was meant to be a spectacle. Through the years, the museum has boasted numerous attractive exhibitions of both classical and contemporary art, but it has always been the aim of the museum to relay a more holistic experience and sensation of the concept of art. Part of this ambition has been fulfilled by the architecture of the museum building itself. An entire pedestrian street runs through the interior of the cubically dimensioned museum building, revealing a view all the way up along the wavy balconies of each storey to the ceiling some 50 metres above. In a corner on the
ground floor sits the museum’s original landmark work of art by Australian artist Ron Mueck: the crouching Boy, an overdimensioned, almost lifelike statue of a boy, and a café offers a pause for reflecting. From the ground floor, a spiral staircase leads to the permanent and temporary exhibitions on each floor. Yesteryear, more than 570,000 visitors, both domestic and from abroad, took a trip up the stairs. This testifies to the fact that ARoS appeals to both connoisseurs and laymen. More than one in every four visitors is a child. Indeed, a special art workshop is dedicated solely to relaying art concepts to children.
Finally, from the various impressions of the 10 storeys below, the stairs lead to the roof garden and perhaps a visit to the museum’s gourmet restaurant or a panorama-view meal in the Sunset Lounge. From here beckons the final spectacle: an unsurpassed view of the city from the 150-metre long passageway inside Your rainbow panorama. An outlook on the city of Aarhus in every direction of the compass presents itself tinted in the hues of the colour spectrum. For more information, please visit:
For more information, please visit: www.aros.dk
Issue 66 | July 2014 | 99