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In June 2026, the American artist will inaugurate his most ambitious work to date at ARoS<\/em>: “As Seen Below \u2013 The Dome”<\/em>, a Skyspace<\/em> measuring 40 metres in diameter and 16 metres in height, promising to transform our relationship with light, time and perception.<\/p>\n It will be the largest Skyspace<\/em> ever created in a museum context and the crowning feature of the most significant architectural expansion in ARoS<\/em>\u2019 history.<\/p>\n More than an installation, “As Seen Below”<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n There are no screens. No images. Just the sky\u2014framed and contained by architecture\u2014transformed by lighting systems conceived by Turrell<\/em> himself.<\/p>\n Artificial light modulates, filters, and choreographs the natural light, creating a chromatic ballet that changes with the hour, the season, and the atmosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cWith As Seen Below, I\u2019m not presenting an image. I\u2019m 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\u2019t describe\u2014it becomes the very matter in which you immerse yourself\u201d<\/em>, explains the artist.<\/span><\/p>\n Skyspaces<\/em> are perhaps James Turrell<\/em>\u2019s most recognised works.<\/p>\n Since the 1970s, he has constructed over 80 Skyspaces<\/em> around the world. Each one is unique\u2014tailored to its location, climate, and celestial rhythms. Yet all share the same essence: using the sky as canvas and light as substance.<\/p>\n With “As Seen Below”<\/em>, Turrell<\/em> elevates the concept to a new dimension. The dome becomes a meditative observatory, where time slows and perception sharpens. The viewer doesn\u2019t simply observe\u2014they become part of the phenomenon. Light is no longer a tool for seeing; it is a presence to be felt, breathed, inhabited.<\/p>\n The experience is collective yet deeply intimate. In the museum\u2019s words, it is a work \u201cdesigned 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n To speak of James Turrell<\/em> (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.<\/p>\n Raised in a Quaker family, Turrell<\/em> 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\u2014it is a form of consciousness.<\/p>\n 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\u2014of watching the colours and light shift at different altitudes and times of day\u2014became the foundation of his lifelong obsession with perception.<\/p>\n \u201cFlying is a kind of meditation. You become one with the sky. Everything becomes light, atmosphere, hue,\u201d<\/em> he has said on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n In the 1960s, he joined the Light and Space<\/em> movement, alongside artists like Robert Irwin<\/em> and Doug Wheeler<\/em>, exploring how light affects our spatial perception. But Turrell<\/em> soon took an even more radical path: creating immersive environments where light is the absolute protagonist.<\/p>\n Although Skyspaces<\/em> are his most iconic works, Turrell<\/em>\u2019s true life project is Roden Crater<\/em>\u2014an extinct volcanic crater in Arizona, which he has been transforming into a vast celestial observatory since 1977.<\/p>\n Roden Crater<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In this context, “As Seen Below” <\/em>stands as a distilled synthesis of his vision: a completed, publicly accessible work\u2014deeply immersive and built upon five decades of accumulated knowledge.<\/p>\n Located in the Danish city of Aarhus, ARoS<\/em> has become one of Europe\u2019s most forward-thinking museums. Its collection includes over 8,300 works of contemporary art, including iconic installations such as “Your Rainbow Panorama”<\/em> by Olafur Eliasson<\/em> and “Boy”<\/em>\u00a0by Ron Mueck<\/em>.<\/p>\n With “As Seen Below”<\/em>, the museum completes its ambitious expansion project “The Next Level”<\/em>, which also includes the opening of The Salling Gallery<\/em>\u2014a subterranean gallery for contemporary art\u2014and Art Square<\/em>, a public outdoor space for exhibitions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are proud that ARoS will be home to Turrell\u2019s 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,\u201d<\/em> says museum director Rebecca Matthews<\/em>.<\/p>\n Turrell<\/em> does not seek to represent anything. His art does not explain, narrate, or instruct. His work is a framework for experience\u2014an opportunity for the viewer to reconnect with their own gaze.<\/p>\n In an age dominated by digital imagery, Turrell<\/em>\u2019s work feels almost subversive. It reminds us that light does not merely illuminate: it constructs reality. That looking is not passive\u2014it is an intentional act. And that time can be felt viscerally when inhabiting a space designed precisely for that.<\/p>\n “As Seen Below”<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n Save the Date!<\/p>\n (*)<\/strong> Photos: Mads Smidstrup \u00a9 ARoS, 2025. From James Turrell\u2019s visit to As Seen Below<\/em>, June 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":93738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5902,5901,5900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibitions","category-artists","category-art-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAs Seen Below: Light to inhabit, sky to sustain<\/h6>\n
\u201cThere are no images. Only the sky, transformed by lighting systems designed by Turrell.\u201d<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nThe Skyspace as contemporary ritual<\/h6>\n
James Turrell: Light, perception and transcendence<\/h6>\n
\u201cTurrell grew up in a culture where silence and contemplation were essential practices.\u201d<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nRoden Crater: Turrell\u2019s life project<\/h6>\n
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<\/p>\nARoS: A museum committed to experience<\/h6>\n
\u201cARoS has become one of the most innovative museums in Europe.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Light, Time, Space: Materials for a new humanism<\/h6>\n
\u201cAs Seen Below is a sensorial and emotional experience. A reminder that we are made of light.\u201d<\/h2>\n