On the future Metro line expansion to Copenhagen's former docklands district, Sydhavnen, the station interiors will be adorned with art as an integral element of the architecture.
When the five new Copenhagen Metro stations open on the Sydhavn line in 2023, travellers will experience subterranean artworks commissioned specifically for each station interior and fully integrated with the architecture.
Each station will be given its own distinctive décor. In some places, in the form of hi-tech lighting installations, megasculptures or mythological murals; elsewhere the art will challenge conventional notions of metro interior design, or will invite travellers on a voyage into outer space.
The project is co-funded by VILLUM FONDEN and Det Obelske Familiefond, with each foundation granting DKK 8.5m. “The grants from the two foundations have now made it possible to give each station on the Sydhavn line expansion a distinctive
interior, and will also give Denmark an innovative experience of art in public spaces,” explains Jørn Neergaard Larsen, Chairman of the Board of the national and local government Copenhagen Metro partners, Metroselskabet I/S.
The five works of art were selected by the Danish Arts Foundation on the basis of an ideas competition with a total of ten invited artists, each of whom submitted their proposal for integrating art and architecture at the Metro stations on the Sydhavn line. On the future Metro line expansion to Copenhagen's former docklands district, Sydhavnen, the station interiors will be adorned with art as an integral element of the architecture.
Sketch of the SUPERFLEX contribution to the Havneholmen Metro station
The five works of art
SUPERFLEX
HAVNEHOLMEN
At Havneholmen, the customary Metro furnishings such as litter bins, information screens, travel card reader posts and clocks are rendered on the walls and ceiling. The clocks on the station keep unpredictable time to convey that art at the station is a departure from the norm in both time and space. “On the Metro, we travel through underground tunnels and lose our sense of time and space. The Metro is a time machine that dissolves our spatial awareness, transporting us into state of suspended 'nowhereness'. The work does away with the law of universal gravitation,” says the art collective SUPERFLEX.
Sketch of Pernillle With Madsen's contribution to Enghave Brygge Metro station
PERNILLE WITH MADSEN
ENGHAVE BRYGGE METRO STATION
At Enghave Brygge Metro station, the art will feature at several points in concrete, marble and fibre optic cables. Here, you can discover a subterranean interior of lighting art and concrete murals linking high technology, archaeology and geology.
“The incorporated elements are just as much special effects as they are motifs. Some of them appear to be part of an object that continues beyond what the eye can see. They evoke something reminiscent of an archaeological find, geological
phenomenon and science fiction prop all in one,” explains Pernille With Madsen.
Sketch of René Schmidt's contribution to Sluseholmen Metro station
RENÉ SCHMIDT
SLUSEHOLMEN METRO STATION
Copenhagen Metro's own materials of steel and concrete are adopted as the mixed media for the art in Sluseholmen station's interior design. Here, the artwork takes its lead from the Metro's clean lines, while giving the interior a futuristic atmosphere. The work consists of two components: one is a vast sculpture in stainless steel, suspended above the escalators and pointing travellers down towards the platforms. The other is a concrete relief cast in the huge, exposed concrete girders over the platforms.
“The long steel sculpture is suspended in the large space in which travellers proceed down to the platforms. The multifaceted surface traps and diffuses light throughout the interior. Each triangle is imbued with its own grey shade; an ongoing, constant rendering of the surroundings, a narrative on the passage of light,” says René Schmidt.
Sketch of Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen's contribution to Mozarts Plads Metro station
CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT-RASMUSSEN
MOZARTS PLADS METRO STATION
At Mozarts Plads, all walls in the station interior will be transformed into a pictorial artwork inspired by the atmosphere around Mozarts Plads. Here, colourful figures stand out against a deep black background.
“This work is inspired by the special status of the former Sydhavn docklands in Copenhagen. Sydhavn is neither suburban nor urban, but a distinct hybrid of the two,” says Christian Schmidt-Rasmussen, who lives in Sydhavn, and knows it like the
back of his own hand.
Sketch of Henrik Plenge Jakobsen's contribution to Ny Ellebjerg Metro station
HENRIK PLENGE JAKOBSEN
NY ELLEBJERG METRO STATION
Ny Ellebjerg Metro station will be bluethemed. The station interior's walls will be decorated in blues – from pale sky blue at the top, to deep, midnight blue at the bottom – and the artistic centrepiece will be a geocentric astronomical clock. The clock
will present a precise representation of some of the celestial bodies' current position above Ny Ellebjerg, and in that way localise Ny Ellebjerg as part of the universe.
“The traditional round clock as we know it is a predictable rail station fixture. With this work, Ny Ellebjerg Metro station will be given a new and magical clock that transcends our daily routine. A clock that points to eternity and gives the beholder a greeting from space,” says Henrik Plenge Jakobsen.
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