ARoS opens the doors to the underground Salling Gallery

Lost Property pulls us underground

The wine glasses were ready. The Danish and international press had arrived. There were speeches, toasts and nods of appreciation as the doors were officially opened to the new underground gallery at ARoS: Salling Gallery.

“The Salling Gallery is a raw, bold and industrial space, cut into the ground and designed to challenge the exhibition format,” said museum director Rebecca Matthews.
“We open with art that envelops us and challenges the familiar.”

I was excited. It was an opening I had been looking forward to for a long time. Not just because it was the first time the gallery had been shown to the public, but because I knew that the art here wanted something different. Something more.

A new beginning underground

It was with a certain awe that I entered the first finished room in ARoS's large expansion. I had been looking forward to it. Not just to see the room, but to feel it. Because I like art that doesn't just hang nicely on the wall, but that disrupts, envelops, makes noise and draws.

A space that feels

Already on the way down the long hallway towards the gallery, the excitement began to tickle. The room is raw with concrete. High ceilings and dark. And at the same time with an atmosphere of something ritualistic, almost as if you were entering a place where time moves more slowly and everything takes on more weight.

In the middle of the room is a large circle surrounded by lavender fabric that falls heavily to the floor. Behind the curtain is Lost Property, a 47-minute looped film created by British artist Jenkin van Zyl. You can walk in, sit on soft poufs made from old clothes, and let yourself be absorbed. I stayed there for a long time. It was unsettling, but also hypnotic.

Fever dreams and distorted figures

Outside the fabric walls of the circle stand figures wrapped in large, soft textiles, some shimmering, others muted and distorted. Beneath each figure is a cardboard box from which human arms protrude and rotate in slow, repetitive movements. Around the figures lie red sheets of paper, each with a large question mark, as if someone has tried to capture an identity, but has only asked a new question.

A bureaucratic labyrinth of identity

Inside the circle, as mentioned, awaits the film Lost Property. A surreal story that takes place in a strange lost property office – The Bureau of Lost Property – where three people return to find their missing doppelgangers. But here it is not wallets and phones that turn up. Here you are looking for parts of yourself. Parts that have been distorted, distorted, repeated and turned upside down.

The film moves through three interconnected worlds – an endless office landscape full of strange rules and rotating cardboard boxes, a half-collapsed theater without an audience and a deserted street in an abandoned London where nothing feels right. The story has no beginning and no end. It runs in circles. And the characters are caught in it, because only one half of them is allowed to go, while the other is allowed to stay. So they take turns. Working in shifts. With themselves.

“The film is about performance under pressure,” says Jenkin van Zyl.
“And like in my other works, I don’t use fantasy as an escape, but as a way to examine the systems that shape us. Especially our queer bodies.”

He describes the work as a cinematic fever dream, where identity, body and control flow together in a looping experience that refuses to find a conclusion.

“I am interested in complicating ideas of flight and return and in the imagination as a political force.”

It is a work that will not just be seen – it will be felt.

A new type of museum experience

At the opening, ARoS Director Rebecca Matthews said:

“We open with art that envelops us and challenges the familiar.”

And it does. This is not the classic white cube. It is a space that invites you to think bigger and to feel more.

Cultural Councillor Rabih Azad-Ahmad and Karin Salling also took to the stage with words that went beyond the opening itself. Both spoke about collaboration, ambition and creating something that not only elevates the arts, but the entire city.

“We are helping to write a new chapter in Aarhus' history, with Salling Gallery as a new cultural lighthouse, created together” said Rabih Azad-Ahmad.

Karin Salling called the opening a milestone, not just for ARoS, but for Aarhus as an international-class cultural city.

“A unique space is created where contemporary art can unfold freely,” she said.
“Let's celebrate the art that challenges us and the frameworks that allow it to grow.”

She concluded with big words and a promise:

“This will be one of the most beautiful art museums in the world.”

That which cannot be explained

I still have a hard time putting my experience into words. But I know that I was touched. That I left with something in my body, a restlessness, a wonder, a longing perhaps. And that's exactly what art is supposed to do. It's supposed to do something with you.

Lost Property does it.
And the Salling Gallery is made for that.

If you are curious about what else is going on in the large art house, we have collected all the most important information about Aarhus Art Museum ARoS one place.

Rebecca Matthews
“We invite you into a new era for the museum and give you the very first glimpse of the Salling Gallery – the first completed space in ARoS' historic expansion.”

“It is much more than a traditional exhibition space – it is a place where artists can take chances and audiences can experience art in new ways.”

Jenkin van Zyl:
“To create a film like this takes an entire chaotic village of people. I am deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to making it possible.”

“Lost Property takes place in a surreal agency where you don't find lost objects – but fragments of yourself, distorted by repetition.”

Rabih Azad-Ahmad:
“The Salling Gallery is a beautiful example of what our city can do when we work together. We are creating something unique that reaches beyond Aarhus.”

“With the opening of Salling Gallery, we are taking another step forward – we are moving towards the Next Level.”

Karin Salling:
“ARoS has shown in recent years that Aarhus is a cultural city of international class. This gallery emphasizes this once again.”

“The Salling Gallery will undoubtedly bring joy – both to current and future generations.”