You’ll find art all over the Stockholm metro system. Across the 110km network, artwork by 150 artists appears at around 90 of the city’s 110 stations. Some are modest works adding a moment’s cultural distraction as one bounds through the ticket hall, but others are bright, bold works that dominate the station platforms.
Here are our 10 favourites.
Stadion
Named after the nearby Olympic Stadium, which hosted the 1912 Summer Olympics, this is a fantastically colourful station. The bright, bold rainbow arches over a walkway between the station’s two platforms. A standout design, and our clear favourite.
Solna Centrum
There is some similarity between this station, a convenient stop for those heading to the nearby Friends Arena, and Rådhuset (see below), but there is something about the shade of red and the way the light hits the rocky ceiling that gives it a sense of a fiery underground realm, a glimpse of Hades.
Thorildsplan
The tiling on this surface-level station features scenes from Eighties arcade games like Pac-Man. The tiles act like pixels. The artist Lars Arrhenius said that all the steps and ramps and walkways of the station reminded him of arcade-style gameplay.
Citybanan – Odenplan
The dramatic lines of light over escalators down to the station platforms provide a dramatic distraction as one gently descends towards the tracks or ascends up into the city. The artist has said that the work was inspired by the lines on the heart monitor at the birth of his son.
Tensta
This station, serving an area that has always been home to many people who have moved to Sweden from elsewhere in the World, has a series of placards on the wall opposite the platform with positive, welcoming messages.
T-Centralen
The network’s central station, through which all lines pass, it was the first station to feature art. This is “the blue platform”, which predictably serves the blue metro line. The bold, assertive design is reminiscent of an olive wreath.
Hötorget
The neon lights on the ceiling of Hötorget station remind us of the more recent, more dynamic LED lighting used at Citybanan – Odenplan (see above). The ones here stand out because the station has otherwise been left as it was in the Fifties, making the juxtaposition between the two more dramatic.
Kungsträdgården
This central station is one of the most photographed on the Swedish capital’s metro system, but away from its artwork it’s also notable for being the only place in northern Europe where a certain cave-dwelling spider can be found, and is also home to a unique fungus that has not been found anywhere else.
Östermalmstorg
Serving Stockholm’s most affluent neighbourhood, this station features art by Siri Derkert. The images here show the word, peace, written in many languages, and a statement in Swedish saying, “We must build a viable world, for those of us alive now and for coming generations.” The sketches were blasted into black rock walls covered in white concrete.
Rådhuset
Like many stations on the Stockholm network, Rådhuset has exposed, unsculpted bedrock, and like Solna Centrum it has a reddish colouring. It is less dramatic than Solna Centrum, with the paler colouring making it less of a hellscape, but still a striking, impressive station.
Thoughts?
Do you live in Stockholm, or have visited? Did you notice the art on the metro system? What did you think? Do you have a favourite from the images shared here? Which is it, and why?
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