Red/Greenhouse, 1993

As a commission for the subway station of Odenplan in Stockholm, an underground greenhouse was installed on the platform. Inside the glass and steel construction two inflatable “lungs” were inserted. Day and night the lungs were pulsating back and forth, creating an image of the greenhouse as a bellows, supporting the underground station with oxygen. The actual fact was that the air in the station was so bad, due to asbestos dust from the trains brakes, that the inside of the sculpture slowly transformed from red/green to grey/grey. This entropic switch, from respirator to vacuum cleaner, was unintended and gave the work a productive mission instead of a symbolic. After one year the Red/Greenhouse installation was dismantled due to the pollution.
Red/Greenhouse
Glass, painted steel, pvc,
fans, timers
600 x 300 x 300 cm
Bigert & Bergström 1993
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