Emory College Study Abroad
Eliasson's Living Art
DIS Copenhagen, Fall 2016
Aarhus, Denmark
Museums abound in Europe, and as a lover of art history, I was naturally excited to visit as many as possible during my semester abroad. Yet, despite my fascination with art from various ages and cultures, I felt myself begin to feel stunted, even bored, in many art museums that I visited. Portraits of dead aristocrats, landscape paintings dotted with the occasional cow or peasant, and images of religious allegories all began to blur together, and I began to question my love for these institutions. Then, on a windy weekend in Denmark’s second biggest city, Aarhus, my life-long interest in art was rejuvenated by a visit to ARoS, the city’s dynamic modern art museum. The structure of the museum was revolutionary and exciting to me: a visitor begins their journey from the “darkest” exhibition on the ground floor, and walks their way up 8 stories to the “brightest” exhibition on the roof. This path of traveling upward through the museum is symbolic of the journey through hell described in Dante’s “Inferno,” and Olafur Eliasson’s rooftop installation piece, "Your Rainbow Panorama", pictured above, signifies the exit from hell into heaven. I was astonished at how immersive this artwork was; as one walks though Eliasson’s circular installation, the body glows and changes along with the colored glass that makes up the structure. Aarhus’s cityscape goes through this colorful process as well, and the play on color, light, and mood make this one of the most special and outright fun artworks I’ve ever experienced. As if this work weren’t special enough on its own, every other exhibition in ARoS at the time I visited was stunningly curated, thought provoking, and most importantly, relevant to today’s world. Subjects like migration, globalization, gender, and sexuality were all themes explored in the art I saw. I learned not only about the possibilities of different media and art forms, but also about unique perspectives that artists contribute the to important discussions I encounter in the classroom. In this way, I believe ARoS achieved the goal of reminding the public why the arts are still a viable path for making sense of today’s world, as well as making a case for the continued importance of museums as a valued place of learning.
Eliasson's Living Art
DIS Copenhagen, Fall 2016
Aarhus, Denmark
Museums abound in Europe, and as a lover of art history, I was naturally excited to visit as many as possible during my semester abroad. Yet, despite my fascination with art from various ages and cultures, I felt myself begin to feel stunted, even bored, in many art museums that I visited. Portraits of dead aristocrats, landscape paintings dotted with the occasional cow or peasant, and images of religious allegories all began to blur together, and I began to question my love for these institutions. Then, on a windy weekend in Denmark’s second biggest city, Aarhus, my life-long interest in art was rejuvenated by a visit to ARoS, the city’s dynamic modern art museum. The structure of the museum was revolutionary and exciting to me: a visitor begins their journey from the “darkest” exhibition on the ground floor, and walks their way up 8 stories to the “brightest” exhibition on the roof. This path of traveling upward through the museum is symbolic of the journey through hell described in Dante’s “Inferno,” and Olafur Eliasson’s rooftop installation piece, "Your Rainbow Panorama", pictured above, signifies the exit from hell into heaven. I was astonished at how immersive this artwork was; as one walks though Eliasson’s circular installation, the body glows and changes along with the colored glass that makes up the structure. Aarhus’s cityscape goes through this colorful process as well, and the play on color, light, and mood make this one of the most special and outright fun artworks I’ve ever experienced. As if this work weren’t special enough on its own, every other exhibition in ARoS at the time I visited was stunningly curated, thought provoking, and most importantly, relevant to today’s world. Subjects like migration, globalization, gender, and sexuality were all themes explored in the art I saw. I learned not only about the possibilities of different media and art forms, but also about unique perspectives that artists contribute the to important discussions I encounter in the classroom. In this way, I believe ARoS achieved the goal of reminding the public why the arts are still a viable path for making sense of today’s world, as well as making a case for the continued importance of museums as a valued place of learning.