Art Goes Underground – The KVB Artist Competition has been decided
Four internationally renowned artists have been chosen to create artistic concepts for the stations of the new North-South Municipal Railway. With this, an art project of international standing will be created, aimed at raising people’s awareness of the city beneath the city. In conjunction with the new archaeological zone and the distinct architectural design of the new stations by different renowned architects, this art project completes the final realisation and scope of the project.In several sessions the jury, which included architects, members of the city council and art experts, selected the following artists.
Tue Greenfort, DK / lives and works in Denmark and Berlin
Katharina Grosse, D / lives and works in Berlin
Werner Reiterer, A / lives and works in Vienna
Heimo Zobernig, A / lives and works in Vienna
Each of these artists will design one subway station on the new North-South Municipal Railway.
The winning designs, which differ greatly in their formal and conceptual approaches, were selected not only for their high artistic quality and originality, but also sustainability, technical feasibility and their realisation within a fixed budget of 1.5 million EURO. The variety of artistic concepts will transform the commuters experience into an exciting excursion through current and diverse artistic practices.
Design Concepts
Tue Greenfort proposes a concept “Neobiota”. With the help of modern technology, images of the “Cologne parakeets”, which have settled in the city, will be captured and their life will be shown on monitors at the station. This work is to be realised at Breslauer Platz station.
Katharina Grosse will realise a large, colourful wall painting at Chlodwigplatz station. An abstract wall painting, which will be created using spraying techniques.
Werner Reiterer’s design is invisible: At regular intervals he will send a “phantom train” on its way along the route of the North-South Municipal Railway. It will be announced and its arrival will be audible. But – even at Heumarkt station where this project will be realised – nobody will ever actually be able to see it.
For Rathaus station, Heimo Zobernig has created an aluminium wall frieze which will feature an abstract positive and negative version of the station’s name.
Press Contact: Unternehmenskommunikation der KVB, Gudrun Meyer, Tel. +49 (0) 221-547-3338, gudrun.meyer@kvb-koeln.de, www.nord-sued-stadtbahn.de
Competition Office: Kathrin Luz und Adelheid Komenda, Kathrin Luz Communication, kl@neumann-luz.de, www.neumann-luz.de
