Aros and James Turrell: Merging Art and Architecture

Aros Aarhus Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark, will be expanded with an underground gallery and two partially underground installations by American artist James Turrell. The new extension, which will extend the museum space with a 1.200 square-metre gallery, will be designed by architecture office Schmidt Hammer Lassen in close collaboration with the artist. The extension called The Next Level connects to the existing building, and visitors will access the underground gallery and installations through the current special exhibition foyer.

The museum was originally designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen and completed in 2004, and the extension is a continuation of a long dialogue between the museum and the architects. This process has formerly involved collaboration with internationally renowned artist Olafur Eliasson, who designed ‘Your Rainbow Panorama,’ an installation and extension of the museum on the roof of the museum building, in 2014.

Alongside with Olafur Eliasson, James Turrell is one of the world’s leading artists working with light, colours and art installations. His oft-colourful room installations remind of three-dimensional light paintings, and his works have a common feature of embracing the audience through light and colour effects controlled by the artist. Turrell’s best-known work is ‘Roden Cater,’ an extinct volcano in the Arizona desert, which is also known as the world’s largest work of art. The extension of Aros Aarhus Museum and the two new installations by the artist, ‘The Sphere’ and ‘The Dome,’ follow the ‘Roden Cater’ as being Turrell’s largest project within a museum context. •

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James Turrell at Aros Museum Denmark.
Photo Morten Fauerby.