An exceptional opportunity for artist and artist groups to engage in creating the new urban spaces of Gothenburg.
The City of Gothenburg invites artists and artist groups to participate in the international selective tendering process for one of the biggest infrastructure and urban development projects in the city’s history: the West Link. It’s a new underground rail link with three stations in different parts of the city. The vision is for the artists who are awarded public art commissions to participate in the creation of the city’s shared public spaces around these stations.
The Chronotopia Art Programme
The art produced within the framework of the West Link project is to be rooted in the general art programme developed for the project, called Chronotopia. The name comes from the Greek Χρόνος (chrónos), meaning time, and τόπος (tópos), meaning place. The theme of the Chronotopia programme emphasizes the use of site-specific artistic exploration to investigate our contemporary world, the potential of the past, and possible stories of the future. The city of Gothenburg is both a place and an era in time, or rather many different parallel spaces and times. Cross-fertilization among these spaces and eras can strengthen and deepen the city’s ethical and existential dimensions.
For more information, read the Chronotopia Art Programme in full here.
The Urban spaces
This tender covers public art for the urban spaces around the Haga and Korsvägen Stations.
Haga Station lies at the intersection of three Gothenburg neighborhoods of cultural-historical significance: Vallgraven, Haga, and Vasastaden. The station will be an entirely new element in this milieu that facilitates better connections among these neighborhoods. The area around the site is characterized by a healthy mix of housing, workplaces, educational institutions, and commercial activity. There are also large parks that offer rich natural, cultural, and social qualities.
The Korsvägen (“Crossroads”) Station is being constructed beneath a transportation hub where public transit, car traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians all converge. It is a pulsing center surrounded by some of Gothenburg’s most prominent landmarks, including the Swedish Exhibition and Congress Centre and Liseberg Amusement Park. A constant flow of people fills the place with life, movement, and diverse forms of human expression. Since the 18th century, the site has been a significant crossroads for two important roads leading into and out of the city, Södra Vägen and Örgrytevägen.
Process and procurement
Starting September 20, 2021, artists and artist groups can submit expressions of interest in the public art commissions. The deadline for submitting expressions of interest is October 20, 2021 (no later than 11:59pm CEST).
After all expressions of interest have been evaluated, six artistic practices will be granted an opportunity to develop concept proposals. Three will develop concept proposals for Haga Station and three for Korsvägen Station. The six artists selected will each be awarded 126,500 SEK (VAT exclusive) as compensation for their concept proposals.
Each of the two artists who are ultimately awarded commissions will be given a production budget of 5,500,000 SEK (VAT exclusive) to execute their artworks. There is no compensation for submitting expressions of interest.
The tendering process is expected to last until June 2022. At the conclusion of the tendering process, the two winning artists or artist groups will be incorporated into an in-depth design phase in which each concept is planned in detail prior to being executed. That work will be conducted in collaboration with the construction project’s architects and engineers and will go on until 2026, when the West Link is expected to be completed.
For more information about the tendering process and how to submit an expression of interest, visit here and here.
