Rainbow Snake

Rainbow Snake by Huang Yong Ping is the proposal that won the artistic competition to intervene in the new station Haga in Gothenburg. Rainbow Snake presents a magnificent overall approach that significantly influences the architectural spaces of Haga station.

Rainbow Snake brings to mind the layers of ancient times that lie under our feet. The artwork consists of a 320-meters-long python skeleton whose curved body meanders through the whole site of Haga station, traversing the layers of the earth, over- and underground, across the entrances, at the park, through the halls and the platforms. While some parts of the gigantic body can be seen outdoors, most of it lies underground, suspended over the halls and the train platforms. Rainbow Snake connects the station’s underground platforms with the ground level, where the skull of the snake emerges at the station’s bicycle entrance.

The sculpture takes an overall approach to the architecture of the entire Haga station and becomes the red thread that connects the different spaces, thus reflecting the artist’s consideration of the traveller’s movements through the station premises. Over the platform, the surfaces of the tail bones create an iridescent effect and reflects the light in rainbow colours, reminding of the inner dimensions of seashells. This aspect elucidates the connection between the internal and the external, between above and below the ground.

In many cultures, myths and religions all over the world, the snake is seen as a powerful and versatile symbolic animal; the skeleton also becomes a metaphor for the passage of time.

Huang Yong Ping

Huang Yong Ping (b. 1954, Xiamen, China – 2019, Paris, France) was a founder of the group Xiamen Dada in China in the 1980s, an avant-garde artist group that explored the intersections between Dadaism and Buddhism. Huang Yong Ping participated in the seminal 1989 exhibition Les Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Pompidou and the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris, the city where he decided to settle. Huang Yong Ping has become known for his monumental installations that combine a spectacular appearance with a rich conceptual background.

Westlink: Kronotopia

The West Link is one of the largest construction projects ever in the Västra Götaland region: it will connect the city and the region by means of a new underground railway through central Gothenburg and new train stations to relieve traffic at the Central Station. The new station environments, entrances, bridges and adjoining urban areas will shape people’s living environments for a long time to come. The construction is scheduled to start in 2018 and the first trains are expected to circulate through the tunnels in 2026.