Aarhus' skyline forever changed
On Saturday 28 May 2011, the art work Your rainbow panorama was officially open on the roof of ARoS Museum of Art in Denmark. The 17.700 m² museum designed by schmidt hammer lassen architects opened in 2004.
Olafur Eliasson describes the project in the following words: “Your rainbow panorama enters into a dialogue with the existing architecture and reinforces what is assured beforehand, that is to say the view of the city. I have created a space which virtually erases the boundaries between inside and outside – where people become a little uncertain as to whether they have stepped into a work or into part of the museum. This uncertainty is important to me, as it encourages people to think and sense beyond the limits within which they are accustomed to moving."
The association between architecture and art is a quest shared by both Mr. Olafur Eliasson and Mr. Morten Schmidt, partner in schmidt hammer lassen architects: how to create a dialogue between architecture and art that enriches human and urban situations, rather than being two estranged objects?
“The dialogue between art and architecture may take many forms,” says Morten Schmidt. “The art piece can be the focal-point with the building as a backdrop. Or it could be the opposite: the scale and geometry of the art playing directly with the architecture, and strengthening it.”
Morten Schmidt explains that one of the main purposes of ARoS Museum of Art is to make art a real option for people. Therefore, the museum is intended as something of a ‘blank canvas’, in effect a space that can be physically affected by art.
Subsequent to an international art competition in 2007, the task of transforming the roof of ARoS and completing the concept of the building was given to Olafur Eliasson. Among other things, the judges explained their choice of Your rainbow panorama by saying that this work would become a powerful identity-creating symbol for ARoS and the city of Aarhus and also a unique, artistic and architectonic landmark of international standing.
Your rainbow panorama on the rooftop of ARoS completes the concept of the building – inspired by Renaissance writer Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy”: At the bottom the nine circles of Hell, the journey up from the Mount of Purgatory and at last, perfection in Paradise. In ARoS, this converts to the exhibition concept of The 9 rooms in the basement, the journey up through the galleries and the art, and finally, at the top, reaching Your rainbow panorama symbolizing perfection: a translucent circle hovering above the cubic the museum.
The building of this extensive art project commenced in 2009, and summer 2010 saw the start of the installation of the now completed walkway. The work has cost 60 million kroner and has been financed by Danish foundation Realdania, while the cost of the roof terrace has been borne by Købmand Herman Sallings Fond. Aarhus Municipality is the authority responsible for the project.
