Stockholm’s subway paints a pretty picture
Artists make underground in the Swedish capital a unique cultural experience
STOCKHOLM— It’s hard to get bored when you’re waiting for a train in Stockholm’s metro system. That’s because 90 of the city’s 100 stations have been given spectacular makeovers, and not with just a few carefully curated pieces of art.
I’m talking about sculptures, paintings, light installations and vertical gardens.
The first station I visit is Kungstradgarden. This city-centre station looks and feels more like a cave, with vast expanses of slick, bulging rock. The hardy greenery clinging to the walls is a species of ivy known to grow in dark, damp caves and mines in South America, but down here, it grows in abundance, providing a slash of green against the black stone.
At nearby Stadshagen, I find a colourful picture of a soccer match painted onto a massive sheet of corrugated metal.
As I walk past, the image, painted by Swedish artist Lasse Lindqvist, transforms. The metal canvas is folded in the same way children fold sheets of paper to make paper fans. View it from one direction and you’ll see the cartoon-like picture of the Swedish football team, but walk along the platform and you’ll see the Danish side, playing in their bright red kit. At the end of the summer, the entire piece is simply flipped back to front to reveal similar sporting scenes, but depicted in winter.
Stockholm certainly takes its art seriously. Two per cent of the cost of any new building must be spent on art and the government has spent a huge amount beautifying its metro system.
Political statements are encouraged; at Solna Centrum station, for example, the bright red paint that covers the walls depicts a fiery night sky above a beautiful green forest. But look beyond the quaint log cabins and the wildlife and you’ll spot subtle hints that all is not well in Sweden’s forests — a farmer confronting a businessman beneath clouds of smog belching out of a newly constructed power station.
One of the most spectacular stations is T-Centralen, the only place where all three metro lines meet. The station, opened in 1975, is an explosion of bright blue. I’m not sure whether the patterns that snake across the white ceiling are meant to resemble vines or tire tread marks, but the effect is beautiful. Near the escalator, the meandering patterns disappear, replaced by the silhouettes of construction workers. Artist Per Olof Ultvedt based his designs on specific people. “Several years ago, I was doing a tour and a man pointed to the silhouette of one particular construction worker and said, ‘That’s me!,’ ” reveals guide Marie Andersson.
At Radhuset, the train I’m waiting for appears through a beautiful archway that wouldn’t look out of place in ancient Rome. When the station was being excavated, workers discovered an ancient stone archway. The artist paid homage to this discovery by creating a replica.
The station that left the biggest impression is Tensta, which can be found in the neighbourhood of the same name. The number of immigrants living in this particular part of Stockholm inspired Swedish artist Helga Henschen’s work. There are poems in different languages and a quote from the late Swedish novelist Birger Norman: “The world has come to Sweden: we have a unique opportunity of enriching our culture, of making our lives more interesting through contact with immigrants.” Timely words, indeed. Tamara Hinson is a U.K.-based writer. Her trip was sponsored by Visit Stockholm and Konstvandringar Stockholm, neither of which reviewed nor approved this story.