Whilst we were staying in Vejle this summer we paid a visit to ARoS – Århus Kunstmuseum (Århus Art Museum), one of Europe’s largest art museums. The building’s exterior would be somewhat bland (despite having be designed by some well renowned architects) without its roof top addition. Its interior is a pleasant surprise and very reminiscent of the Guggenheim in New York.

The main reason for the visit was to see the Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson, which was opened in 2011. This is what the museum say about it.

 The world-famous Danish-Icelandic artist has created this permanent work of art consisting of a circular, 150-metre-long and three metre-wide circular walkway in glass in all the colours of the spectrum. Mounted on slender columns 3.5 metres above the roof and with a diameter of 52 metres, this spectacular creation extends from one edge to the other of the facade of the cubic museum building.

I was so glad that we made the trip to see this. Such a simple concept yet so beautiful and unique at the same time. We walked around a few times with my son marvelling at the changes of colour and also how these impacted on the photos we took of each other (the joy of the instant nature of digital photography). I then walked around on my own and managed to capture some empty shots despite the number of people there. I loved looking up from below and how the coloured glass made the people look like ants.

However there is more to the museum than just this. We spent a morning there but you could certainly find enough to see for a whole day. Other highlights for us included the permanent exhibition of Ron Mueck’s Boy, first shown at the Millennium Dome in 2000 and now purchased by ARoS. This amazingly lifelike sculpturel of a boy stands (or crouches to be precise) at 4.5m and the attention to detail is outstanding. I particularly noticed how the skin on his elbows was completely as a real person’s would be. I think this was the most memorable part of the visit for my son.

For these two unique elements alone I would recommend a visit to ARoS but after enjoying the current exhibition , Form, Colour and Plane, and seeing the calendar for the rest of the year, I just wish we lived close enough to experience all this place has to offer.