Your body is the instrument in ARoS' new total exhibition “Step Inside”

ARoS has opened its doors to a sensory-rich exhibition. Step Inside is not an art exhibition in the traditional sense, where you view works from a distance behind a barrier. It is an invitation to use your body as a sensory instrument and let yourself be engulfed by universes that both seduce and challenge you. Here are four rooms, each demanding your full attention.

The Vicious Circle and the Smell of Capitalism

There is something that hits you before you even realize what you are in for when you step into Step Inside. A scent fills the room and settles into your senses, not in an unpleasant way, but in a way that insists on your attention and makes it impossible to just walk on without noticing. It is the kind of scent that cannot be ignored, and that slowly makes your body fall into the rhythm of the exhibition.

In the middle of the room lies the sand, shaped in a circle. It looks soft, almost inviting, and you want to step into it and feel it under your feet, but at the same time you hold back. There is something almost solemn about the pattern, a sense that one wrong step can destroy something that has been designed exactly the way it is now.

If you stand at the very back of the room and look towards the big blue circle on the wall, you will notice that it is not completely round. It is close, but not perfect, and that small shift begins to take up more space the longer you stand and look. The work draws on the Hello Kitty figure, a character without a mouth, without clear expression of emotion, and into which we can project our own ideas.

Slowly you realize that what initially appears aesthetic and calm also contains a critique. A reminder of how we are influenced through our senses, how scents, colors and moods can manipulate us without us necessarily realizing it while we are standing in the middle of it.

Water, oil and fragility that is not what it seems

As you move into the next room, the first thing that meets you is not the water or the film, but a gigantic woven carpet hanging from the ceiling, marking the transition to Laure Prouvost's universe. It almost feels like stepping through a portal, where the pace slows down and the senses gradually shift focus. The carpet reads: WE THINK BIRDS CAN FEEL, SEE MAGNETIC FIELDS, and even here the room begins to work with you before you've really taken it all in.

Inside the room, your eyes have to adjust to the darkness and the many layers of impressions. A large figure with flowing water emerges as a unifying centerpiece, creating an almost meditative calm, while smaller birds stand wrapped in dark puddles of oil, giving the room a more ominous expression. The contrast between the clean water and the polluting oil is impossible to ignore and keeps pulling the gaze back and forth between hope and destruction.

It is recommended that you sit on the bench and take your time, because only then does the space really begin to unfold. The film on the big screen invites you into a world where the intimate and the political exist side by side, without clear answers being given. You must form your own connections and let the impressions sink in at your own pace.

The floor beneath the exhibition looks fragile, but the resin surface is far more robust than the eye tells you. You are welcome to go out there, and when you do, another shift occurs between what you expect and what your body actually experiences. It is precisely in that tension, between the sensed and the experienced, that the space stays with you long after you have moved on.

Letting go and letting time dissolve

In the third room, the pace slows down even further. Here you can sink into the soft cushions on the floor and let your gaze fixate on the enormous canvas that fills your field of vision. The film draws you into a universe that may be reminiscent of the underwater, but which never quite lends itself to being locked into one interpretation. Shapes and colors move slowly, almost hypnotically, creating a world that feels alive and constantly changing.

It's easy to lose track of time here. You lie there, look around, and only realize afterwards how long you've actually been there. The work was created using AI software that is programmed to continue the creative process even after the artist's lifetime.

A piano that keeps playing without you

The exhibition ends in a room that immediately feels almost playful. Here, a piano plays by itself while large, colorful fish slowly move around the room. They may look like inflated balloons from an amusement park, but they are custom-made and created by the only person in the world who has permission to make these particular fish.

The contrast between the self-playing piano and the floating fish creates an almost unreal atmosphere, where it is difficult to determine who or what is actually controlling the movements. The music fills the room, the lights flash discreetly, and the elements react to each other in a system that continues whether you are standing there or not.

When you leave the room, the piano is still playing. The fish keep drifting around. Nothing stops because you leave. And perhaps this is where Step Inside really gets stuck. In the realization that the world, the systems and the technologies continue their movement, even when we take a step back.

Why Step Inside gets stuck

Step Inside is not an exhibition you have just seen. It is an exhibition you have been in. It works with the body, the senses and time and leaves you with the feeling that something is still moving, even after you have moved on through the museum and back into everyday life.

It is beautiful, disturbing and thought-provoking at the same time, and that is precisely why it is an exhibition that will not let you go immediately.

Step Inside

The exhibition can be experienced during the period:

February 7, 2026 - August 9, 2026

Artists in the exhibition:

Pamela Rosenkranz
Working with the body, biology and senses and investigating how colors, scents and materials affect us both physically and mentally.

Laure Prouvost
Creates sensual installations and films where personal stories, poetry and global issues are intertwined.

anicka yi
Working at the intersection of art, technology and nature with a focus on AI, biology and future forms of life and consciousness.

Philippe Parreno
Creates spatial, time-based works where light, sound and movement are controlled by systems that make each visit unique.