Underground trains have been running through Karlsruhe for less than a year. The stops are kept simple. This is about to change soon.
Karlsruhe (dpa / lsw) – In the middle of the night on Friday, art moved back into the Karlsruhe subway. Employees of a specialist company installed part of the work by the artist Markus Lüpertz, made of ten panels each weighing up to 150 kilograms, which the painter specially designed for the seven underground stops.
But the passengers don’t get to see any of this at first: until all 14 large-format ceramic plaques are hung and ceremonially presented to the public, the mounted copies remain covered. According to the Karlsruhe Art Experience Association, the installation should be completed this year. The first of the four by two meter panels has been hanging since the end of 2020.
The subway went into operation in December after twelve years of construction. The project costs amount to 1.5 billion euros, although it is one of the shortest subways in Germany. The art project “Genesis” by the Karlsruhe artist Lüpertz is intended to decorate the stops, which are basically kept in gray and white. The association intends to make the work available to the city for this purpose for at least seven years.
According to earlier information, the art project based on the story of creation cost around one million euros and, according to the association, was financed without public funds by donations from private individuals and companies. “The now long production phase, increased cost of production and installation requires further financial commitment,” explained Chairman Anton Goll.
