ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark and the artist Olafur Eliasson have announced a new long-term partnership that will stretch well beyond a single exhibition. Titled Olafur Eliasson x ARoS, Shared Futures, the initiative launches at the Aarhus museum next autumn after five years of development.

The centrepiece is a major solo exhibition called Thin Ice. Alongside it, the museum will acquire Presence, a monumental installation Eliasson made in 2025, which will also appear in the show. The partnership extends into the public realm with a new public art installation, and into research with a postdoctoral position and a publicly accessible study space and library devoted to the artist.

The stated aim is to carry the experience of Eliasson's work beyond the museum walls and into everyday life in the city. A dedicated library and study room is an unusual commitment for a living artist, and it signals that the museum sees the relationship as a lasting one rather than a one-off loan or exhibition.

Eliasson, the Icelandic-Danish artist known for large-scale installations that play with light, weather and perception, has a long history with the Aarhus museum. The partnership adds to a busy period for ARoS, which is positioning itself as a home for ambitious long-term collaborations between artists and institutions. Further details of the public installation and the research programme are expected as the 2027 launch approaches.

The partnership is designed to extend the experience of Eliasson's work beyond the museum and into the public sphere, with the new public installation carrying his practice out of the galleries and into the city itself. The study space and library will give researchers and visitors a permanent place to explore how the artist's installations are conceived and built.