A huge rainbow currently lights up the main archway at Amsterdam Central Station every evening as part of a collaboration between artist Daan Roosegaarde and astronomers at the University of Leiden. ‘Rainbow Station’, which utilises a specially designed lens filter, was opened on December 11 and was launched in honour of the NS and ProRail 125 year old station.
Rainbow Station can be seen every day for a whole year for a brief moment within an hour after sunset at the east side of the station.
Patrick Buck of ProRail and Timo Huges of NS released a joint statement that said: "This innovative and coluorful artwork adds atmosphere to the monumental station, it is a great gift to our travellers."
Scientist Frans Snik of the Leiden Observatory added: "Thanks to new liquid crystal technology that we are developing for research on exoplanets (planets orbiting stars other than the sun), Rainbow Station takes the exact shape of the 45-meter wide historic station roof".
The work also marks UNESCO’s international ‘Year of the Light’ and was made in collaboration and with support of the Amsterdam Fund for the Art, NS, ProRail, Stichting Doen and Daan Roosegaarde’s studio, Roosegaarde.