The Best Public Art in Stockholm
Stockholm is a city that loves culture so it’s no surprise it contains impressive public art. Add in the fact that the government funds and commissions temporary and permanent public art from some of the country’s leading artists, which can mean anything from fleeting street performance pieces to permanent installations. You never know what is waiting for you around the next corner so here’s a taste of the best public art in Stockholm.
Subway system
The Stockholm subway system is home to the world’s longest art gallery, with many of the stops transformed through sculpture, etching, paintings, light installations, and much more. Each station’s art has been created by individual artists or a team of artists over the course of decades, and reflect different themes, such as technology at Tekniska or an underground garden at Kungsträdgården. For the price of a ticket you can explore all day, filling your senses with art for the ages.
1. SHH, QUIET, LISTEN
Building, School
Evert Taube
Beloved Swedish musician and troubadour Evert Taube remains present in people’s hearts, in part because of this statue, which you’ll find at Järntorget on Riddarholmen. Taube was highly regarded by Swedes because he kept the traditional Swedish ballad tradition alive. He has appeared on Swedish bank notes and there are any number of statues of him scattered around the country. This one in particular evokes both his warmth and reputation as a master musician.
3. Morgondagens Väder Stockholm
The installation Morgondagens Väder Stockholms Centralstation (Tomorrow’s Weather Central Station) by artists Bigert & Bergström is a grouping of hanging atmosphere molecules, each connected to a weather service via the Internet. The globes change colour depending on weather forecasts. In the middle of the grouping hangs a sole orb that signals temperature, moving up and down and from blue to red, depending on cooling and heating. The globes show the weather that is coming, thus illustrating the future.
Stockholm Central Station, Stockholm, Sweden.
4. Listening Wall
Building
5. Järnpojke
Church
Kentauren
The wild half man/half horse, Centaur, was installed on the slope of the northeast section of the hill at Observatorielunden on the edge of Vasastan back in 1939, a decade after heated debate nearly stopped it being erected. It’s one of sculptor and poet Sigrid Fridman’s best known works, and today the bronze beast overlooks a beloved spot for Stockholmers, who flock to the hill on beautiful summer afternoons.
6. The Ark
Church
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