A pink boulder, as big as a three-storey building, now stands on the Västlänken railway bridge at Olskroken in Gothenburg. bLINK is a work by the internationally renowned artist Katharina Grosse, produced and commissioned by the Public Art Agency and the Swedish Transport Administration as part of the artistic creation of Västlänken.
With bLINK, the artist Katharina Grosse invites the viewer to imagine a giant spotlight that directs a cone of pink light at the ground. All surfaces that are fictitiously hit by the light beam are coloured pink: railway bridge, framework, ground surfaces, footpaths and cycle paths. In the middle of the light, a huge boulder seems to have landed on the railway bridge.
– Katharina Grosse proposed a large-scale sculpture in the middle of a railway bridge where the trains are led under the defence redoubt Skansen Lejonet. The unexpected location and the large-scale work mean that bLINK will be visible from afar from completely different places in Gothenburg. Moreover, the process has been unusual. Here, cutting-edge skills from completely different professional fields have been able to meet to work out together how the unique artwork bLINK can become a reality, Lotta Mossum says, Head of Art Unit, Public Art Agency.
bLINK links time, movement and space and adds something completely unexpected and theatrical to the place. The proportions of the sculpture refer to Skansen Lejonet, the defence redoubt that for centuries has looked out over a landscape in transformation. The work with bLINK has placed high demands on construction and safety because it is the first time in Sweden that a work of art has been integrated into a railway facility.
– With bLINK, Gothenburg gets a public artwork of an international class that links the railway with its surrounding urban landscape and the people who will experience the artwork. Through a well-functioning collaboration, bLINK becomes an integrated part of the city’s designed living environment that will make an impression on residents and visitors for many years to come, Joakim Jonsson says, Head of Technology and Environment at Västlänken, Swedish Transportation Administration.
bLINK is one of several artworks in Västlänken and they all take their starting point from the artistic vision Kronotopia – a concept that connects to Gothenburg and the common history of the citizens of Gothenburg. bLINK is the first work and will be fully completed in the coming months.
About Katharina Grosse
The German artist Katharina Grosse is internationally active and above all, she is known for her large-scale and colourful installations. She works with painting and sculpture and has exhibited her works in the leading art museums around the world. Grosse has received numerous awards and has also made several public works, one of which is the eye-catching blue station house in Vara, produced by the Public Art Agency.
About Västlänken
Västlänken är en järnväg i tunnel under centrala Göteborg som ger staden genomgående pendel- och regiontågtrafik. Tre nya stationer gör att du kan resa enklare, snabbare och med färre byten. Konst är en del av projekt Västlänkens arbete både under byggtiden och sedan när anläggningen är klar.