The 10 million daily passengers and visitors have been able to, through their journeys at stations, observe works of art, covering all types of creative work: photography, design, sculpture, comics, music… Art at stations is a new invitation to travel.
Culture has taken over the station space
Away from the museums and festivals, culture is still vibrant and shared. It can be found everywhere at stations and it brings out emotions, all the more so as passengers do not expect it there. People may be curious, intrigued, impressed, full of admiration... On the huge facade of Gare du Nord, a Renoir painting overlooks us from above. The Fale group has taken over the whole glass canopy of Strasbourg station. At Marseille station the Rencontres d’Arles photojournalism images stand out on the hills of Provence in the distance.
Culture is on display at a lively station with constant flows of men and women. What type of culture? Many types: painting, sculpture, drawings, palaeontology, photo reports, art or documentary photography, contemporary creations and relics from the past. There is an abundance of diverse culture at stations. With their architecture, monumental character and the diversity of their spaces, stations contain extraordinary sensory and emotional potential. Culture gives another meaning to the station and to the journey.
Photography: the art of black and white
As you come round one of the station’s pillars you come face to face with a huge black and white photograph. In our polychrome life, the station is multi-coloured: display boards, shops, signage, etc. The black and white is like another language, that of photographic art. When Martine Franck, Guy Tillim or the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation’s photographs are shown at Lille-Europe, Rennes or Bordeaux they also express the present. The black and white photographs give passengers, on a platform or in a corridor, the chance to discover a piece of eternity.
The planet, large format
The station reflects on a key issue: the urgency of the climate crisis. The immaculate whiteness of ice fields, the fragile intricacy of coral reefs, the freedom of our wildlife: the images on display in large format at stations all over France express in striking terms the splendour of our planet, and the need to take action against climate change. Stations, with 10 million daily passengers and visitors, are perhaps the best place to put out messages and raise awareness.
A citizen commitment
An important place in local life, of sharing and connections, the station is an integral part of the town and society. An exhibition at a station can become a spark that makes anyone capable of taking a stand against any violation of human rights, a lever that helps to promote a world with more solidarity. From fundamental rights in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the photographs of the war photojournalist Véronique de Viguerie showing women and men mistreated in Nigeria, Iraq, China... The images have the power to move and convince people.
Our news
