Colors are always on something, connected with something, in transition from one thing to something else, and that is why colors are always just one half of the story, whereas the situation in which the color arises or appears constitutes the other side.
-Olafur Eliasson
The objective was to apply a single, coherent vision to the creation of an architectural work of art on the museum roof, a work which would crown and complete the cube-shaped architecture while also acting as an exciting space for recreation, a landmark for ARoS, and finally as a statement capable of rounding off the museum's main underlying concept based on a journey similar to that of Dante's Divine Comedy, describing a movement from The 9 spaces at the museum's lowest level ("Inferno") to a work of art on the roof that creates a link to the heavens .
-Jens Erik Sorensen
Director, ARoS
In Your rainbow panorama you activate a range of impressions and color effects yourself as you walk around inside the extended rainbow running like a cave or tunnel within a circular horizon. The gaze oscillates; by turns focused on the corridor space and on the wide vistas out across the city and its roofscapes.
The City Is Gathered Up, the City Is Seen.
The vast circle itself -the 150m walkway -has a centrifugal effect, prompting the vast panoramic vista to expand outwards, whereas the rainbow gathers itself around the center of the roof in an inward move. Other visitors are seen as scattered particles or silhouettes in the enclosed walkway. The 3m wide pavement of Your rainbow panorama allows you to walk, run, dance, or sit down; the work does not determine your position in advance, but it might very well radically change the way you perceive the city, its houses, its charted routes and interconnected relationships.
Project Details:
Your Rainbow Panorama | 2011 | Studio Olafur Eliasson
ARoS, Kunstmuseum Aarhus, Denmark
Citation: Elíasson, Ólafur, Marie Nipper, and Jens Erik Sørensen. 2011. Your Rainbow Panorama. Aarhus: ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum.
