ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum - Unique Art World in Western Denmark is on the Rise

On the roof of a museum inspired by Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” a sculptural walkway resembling a many-colored halo is attracting record-breaking crowds. It offers a 360-degree view through multicolored glass of Denmark’s second-largest city and by night it lights up, the brightest illumination in western Denmark.

The work hints at how Aarhus is trying to rival art-centric Copenhagen with bold exhibitions and projects that have excited, and put off, the locals.

The Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson unveiled his work atop the ARoS museum in May. The walkway — which he calls “Your Rainbow Panorama” and has dubbed “an expectation machine” — has accounted for 250,000 of the ARoS’s record 380,000 visitors so far this year, the museum estimates. Initially, the developers imagined a Garden of Eden-like sculpture park, with peacocks and perhaps a tearoom.

photo credits: VisitAarhus.com