Over time, galleries and museums begin to form a distinct personality, a cultural fingerprint that’s entirely their own. There are certain shows that become definitive moments in the artistic canon, or perhaps there’s an annual event or prize that comes to shape how the public sees an institution. Consider the much-anticipated Turbine Hall installation at Tate Modern, which has welcomed massive names like Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Carsten Höller, Doris Salcedo, Kara Walker and Oalfur Eliasson. Then there’s Whitechapel Gallery’s affinity for moving-image, spotlighting artists who specialise in film, performance and video art, or Haus der Kunst’s current programme focusing on the overlooked contribution of women to the canon. This is also true of ARoS museum, which over the past two decades has developed a strong reputation for large-scale installations, engulfing the audience in an immersive experience.
This continues with their latest show, Collection Favourites, which presents iconic installation works from their archive in a new and original configuration, creating an experience where the familiar can feel new. Rebecca Matthews, Museum Director, says: “Since opening in 2004, large-scale installation art has been central to our identity at ARoS – something that has now been further emphasised with the recent opening of James Turrell’s monumental Skyspace. Collection Favourites brings together a number of the defining works that have become part of many visitors’ memories and that we hope will continue to inspire new audiences. We are also delighted to welcome Ron Mueck’s extraordinary Couple Under an Umbrella to ARoS, adding an important new dimension to this presentation of the collection.” The show is a real reminder of who ARoS is regarded with such high esteem in the international art world. There is a curatorial confidence that sees familiar names placed alongside emerging figures, and pieces that perhaps in other places would jostle for attention, work seamlessly together.
A standout moment in the show is Olafur Eliasson’s The Inverted Panorama House (2004), in which a circular screen encloses a group of glass discs, rings and squares. Each element is suspended from a steel framework and rotates at different speeds. Light from a spotlight is reflected, obstructed and filtered by the rotating glass forms to produce a complex interplay of reflections and shadows. Also featured is Bill Viola’s Five Angels for the Millennium (2001), a monumental five-channel video piece that sees five figures submerged or reemerging from water. The saturated colour shifts from blue red to grey green that, ask Tate puts it, “alternatively evokes a sense of the sinister and the purifying.” Meanwhile, Shirin Neshat’s video installation, Munis, Women without Men (2008), adapts magical-realist elements from Shahrnush Parsipur’s banned novel and is set against the backdrop of the 1953 CIA-backed coup in Iran.
In addition to works from ARoS’s own collection, visitors will experience the lifelike sculpture Couples Under an Umbrella (2013), created by Australian artist Ron Mueck. The enormous piece depicts an elderly couple under a sunshade, created exactly twice life-size and with hyper-realistic precision. The piece is on loan from Museum Voorlinden in the Netherlands, representing the international reasch of ARoS, and the benefit of ongoing international cultural exchange. Mueck is also the name behind Boy (1999) and A Girl (2006), which is currently on display at Modern One in Edinburgh.
There is often an expectation in contemporary art to keep the momentum, push forwards and dedicate your exhibition space to the next thing. Collection Favourites is a welcome moment to pause, breathe and celebrate the established artworks of a gallery. That being said, there is nothing stagnant or cliché about this, with each iconic piece taking on new meaning as it shifts into a different context. This show reminds us what it means to take a step back and appreciate what is already there.
Collection Favourites is at ARoS, Aarhus from 12 September 2026 to 29 August 2027: Aros.dk
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1&4. Bill Viola, Five Angels for the Millenium, 2001. Femkanals farvevideoprojektion; stereo. Courtesy ARoS.
2. Olafur Eliasson, The Inverted Panorama House, 2004.Courtesy ARoS.
3. Hanne Nielsen og Birgit Johnsen, Camp Kitchen, 2014.Foto: Erik Zappon.Courtesy ARoS.
