Art meets Architecture // View from a Rainbow

When architecture and art are brought together, it adds an extra dimension. The clear lines of architecture are challenged and embraced in the meeting with the creative art scene, resulting in an extraordinary symbiosis. DANISH™ looks at the incredible artwork; Your Rainbow Panorama.

Your Rainbow Panorama, by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, is an artwork that embellishes the skyline of Aarhus on top of the ARoS art museum. Ever since ARoS was designed, a part of the idea was to add some sort of artwork on top of the building to create a new dimension.

Your Rainbow Panorama is the result of a close collaboration with Danish architecture company Schmidt Hammer Lassen, the building owner and Olafur Eliasson, and a great example of what can happen when art and architecture merge.

“There is no doubt that Your Rainbow Panorama as an artwork supplements the building in a very distinguished way, both geometrically, as well as proportionally, but also on a more philosophical level it completes Dante’s story “From Heaven to Hell”, which is the idea that ARoS is based upon. Furthermore, the artwork also adds something very unique to the city and the way in which you experience the city. The artwork enhances the way in which we experience the city and the building,” says Morten Schmidt, Senior Partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Your Rainbow Panorama is a large circle that you can walk inside, while a big silver ball in the centre of the circle projects different colours as the visitor moves through the artwork. You will experience a feeling of walking inside a rainbow while looking over the city of Aarhus. With Your Rainbow Panorama, architecture and art merge and present a new fundamental experience of the city’s skyline.

This story is part of a three-piece series, originally published as the DANISH™ single; "When Art meets Architecture".

Words DANISH™ (edited from original) Photos OLE HEIN PEDERSEN