The artistic proposals Eternal Employment by Goldin+Senneby and Rainbow Snake by Huang Yong Ping have been appointed as the winners of the international art competition Chronotopia 2: Haga and Korsvägen. The competition has been organized by Public Art Agency Sweden and the Swedish Transport Administration in the framework of the West Link, one of the largest construction projects ever in Gothenburg, which includes a series of new train stations and infrastructure areas.
Eternal Employment by the Swedish artist duo Goldin+Senneby has been selected for Korsvägen station. Eternal Employment is a conceptual proposal that illustrates the connections between the individual’s everyday life and the intangible transactions of global economy. A person is employed at Korsvägen station; the position holds no duties or responsibilities, besides the fact that the employee should check-in and check-out at Korsvägen Station at the beginning and end of each working day. Whatever the employee choses to do constitutes the work. The employment contract is full time and of indefinite duration; should the employee resign or retire, a new employee is recruited. At the station, a changing room is installed, as well as a time clock connected to fluorescent lights above the platforms—a “working light"—that are turned on whenever the employee is at work. The financial feasibility of the project is envisaged through the long-term strategic investment of the allocated production budget, which is to be managed by a foundation set up for this purpose. The jury of the competition considers that Eternal Employment presents a highly innovative proposal that significantly expands the field of artistic interventions in the public sphere.
Goldin+Senneby is a duo formed by artists Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby, who have been collaborating since 2004. In their practice, they explore juridical, financial and spatial constructs, which they address through the framework of the performative and the virtual.
Rainbow Snake by the Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping has been selected for Haga station. Rainbow Snake consists of a 318-meters-long snake skeleton whose curved shape meanders through the whole site, traversing the layers of the earth and emerging over- and underground, at the park, across the entrances, through the halls and the platforms. In the subterranean sections, the surfaces of the bone formations create an iridescent effect and reflect the light in rainbow colors. Being present in most cultures, myths and religions, the snake is a symbolic animal that offers a wide range of interpretations and therefore articulates diverse accounts of cultural heritage. The jury of the competition considers that Rainbow Snake deeply affects the configuration of the station premises through a magnificent artistic vision.
Huang Yong Ping (b. 1954, Xiamen, China) founded the avant-garde artist group Xiamen Dada in China in the 1980s. He has become known for his monumental installations that combine a stunning presentation with a rich conceptual background.
Eternal Employment and Rainbow Snake will be developed and implemented during the next years within the framework of the Chronotopia art program, together with the two winning projects of the previous competition Chronotopia 1: Centralen and Olskroken, finalized in January 2017: Danh Vō’s Tongue and Groove for Central Station and Katharina Grosse’s bLINK for the bridge area at Olskroken.
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