James Turrell’s New Temple of Light at ARoS
The master of light, James Turrell, is set to unveil his most monumental installation to date in June 2026. “As Seen Below – The Dome”, an unprecedented Skyspace, will become the architectural jewel of the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark.
Hours: Opening: June 2026
A temple of light in the heart of the north
The sky has long been a central theme in art. From Renaissance domes to contemporary land art, looking upwards has always been a way to seek meaning and invoke the transcendent. But no one has made the sky such a radically physical and emotional experience as James Turrell.
In June 2026, the American artist will inaugurate his most ambitious work to date at ARoS: “As Seen Below – The Dome”, a Skyspace measuring 40 metres in diameter and 16 metres in height, promising to transform our relationship with light, time and perception.
It will be the largest Skyspace ever created in a museum context and the crowning feature of the most significant architectural expansion in ARoS’ history.
As Seen Below: Light to inhabit, sky to sustain
More than an installation, “As Seen Below” is an architectural gesture on an emotional scale. Visitors will enter through an underground tunnel bathed in light before emerging into a vast dome open to the sky through a central oculus.
There are no screens. No images. Just the sky—framed and contained by architecture—transformed by lighting systems conceived by Turrell himself.
Artificial light modulates, filters, and choreographs the natural light, creating a chromatic ballet that changes with the hour, the season, and the atmosphere.
“There are no images. Only the sky, transformed by lighting systems designed by Turrell.”
“With As Seen Below, I’m not presenting an image. I’m shaping the experience of seeing. The architecture brings the sky closer, allowing you to understand that the act of looking is the artwork itself. Here, light doesn’t describe—it becomes the very matter in which you immerse yourself”, explains the artist.
The Skyspace as contemporary ritual
Skyspaces are perhaps James Turrell’s most recognised works.
Since the 1970s, he has constructed over 80 Skyspaces around the world. Each one is unique—tailored to its location, climate, and celestial rhythms. Yet all share the same essence: using the sky as canvas and light as substance.
With “As Seen Below”, Turrell elevates the concept to a new dimension. The dome becomes a meditative observatory, where time slows and perception sharpens. The viewer doesn’t simply observe—they become part of the phenomenon. Light is no longer a tool for seeing; it is a presence to be felt, breathed, inhabited.
The experience is collective yet deeply intimate. In the museum’s words, it is a work “designed for silent contemplation, inviting visitors to experience the poetry of light and the seasons, and to reconnect with our relationship to nature, the sky, and the planet we share.”
James Turrell: Light, perception and transcendence
To speak of James Turrell (Los Angeles, 1943) is to speak of one of the most influential figures in contemporary art. His work defies traditional categories: it is art, but also architecture, science, philosophy and spirituality.
Raised in a Quaker family, Turrell grew up in a culture where silence and contemplation were daily practices. This influence would mark his artistic path profoundly. For him, to look is not merely a physical act—it is a form of consciousness.
“Turrell grew up in a culture where silence and contemplation were essential practices.”
His background is as singular as his work. He is a trained pilot, psychologist, and artist. He learned to fly at a young age, and the sensation of being suspended in the sky—of watching the colours and light shift at different altitudes and times of day—became the foundation of his lifelong obsession with perception.
“Flying is a kind of meditation. You become one with the sky. Everything becomes light, atmosphere, hue,” he has said on multiple occasions.
In the 1960s, he joined the Light and Space movement, alongside artists like Robert Irwin and Doug Wheeler, exploring how light affects our spatial perception. But Turrell soon took an even more radical path: creating immersive environments where light is the absolute protagonist.
Roden Crater: Turrell’s life project
Although Skyspaces are his most iconic works, Turrell’s true life project is Roden Crater—an extinct volcanic crater in Arizona, which he has been transforming into a vast celestial observatory since 1977.
Roden Crater is a secular temple. A planetary-scale work blending astronomy, geology, architecture, and spirituality. While still under construction, a few special visits have been permitted, and its very existence has influenced generations of artists, architects, and thinkers.
More than a work of art, it is a declaration of faith in slow time, in deep looking, and in the power of art as transformative experience. Each chamber, each solar or lunar alignment within the crater is designed to reconnect the visitor with celestial rhythms and evoke a profound sense of wonder beyond the everyday.
In this context, “As Seen Below” stands as a distilled synthesis of his vision: a completed, publicly accessible work—deeply immersive and built upon five decades of accumulated knowledge.
ARoS: A museum committed to experience
Located in the Danish city of Aarhus, ARoS has become one of Europe’s most forward-thinking museums. Its collection includes over 8,300 works of contemporary art, including iconic installations such as “Your Rainbow Panorama” by Olafur Eliasson and “Boy” by Ron Mueck.
With “As Seen Below”, the museum completes its ambitious expansion project “The Next Level”, which also includes the opening of The Salling Gallery—a subterranean gallery for contemporary art—and Art Square, a public outdoor space for exhibitions.
“We are proud that ARoS will be home to Turrell’s most significant Skyspace to date. It is an extraordinary work that invites the public to slow down, look up, and experience time and space in profoundly moving ways,” says museum director Rebecca Matthews.
“ARoS has become one of the most innovative museums in Europe.”
Light, Time, Space: Materials for a new humanism
Turrell does not seek to represent anything. His art does not explain, narrate, or instruct. His work is a framework for experience—an opportunity for the viewer to reconnect with their own gaze.
In an age dominated by digital imagery, Turrell’s work feels almost subversive. It reminds us that light does not merely illuminate: it constructs reality. That looking is not passive—it is an intentional act. And that time can be felt viscerally when inhabiting a space designed precisely for that.
“As Seen Below” is not a spectacle. It is a sensorial and emotional experience. A reminder that we are made of light. That the sky is always above us, waiting. And that art, when it touches what is essential, needs nothing more than space and intention.
“As Seen Below is a sensorial and emotional experience. A reminder that we are made of light.”
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(*) Photos: Mads Smidstrup © ARoS, 2025. From James Turrell’s visit to As Seen Below, June 2025.
