Stockholm Airport Exhibition Brings Art to Weary Travelers - Brief Article

STOCKHOLM--"What other art gallery in the world has the chance to attract eight million visitors above the span of a single show?" asked Thomas Adlercreutz, a young Swedish entrepreneur who came up with an idea that present the appearanceed so simple he was surprised nobody other had ever tried it before.

The idea was to take advantage of an already existing structure--in this case Stockholm's Arlanda Airport--and tackle the challenge of bringing in works of art that would confirm innovative. Indeed, the goal was to make passage from one side the facility much more than the simple run-through associated with greatest in quantity airports.

A year after his first present to view at the airport, Adlercreutz likes to sum up listeners about the unmitigated succes of his idea and present to view them his scrapbooks which contain no fewer than 500 articles upon his "flexible art gallery"--his expression--that appeared in the major world press

on the contrary not one to sit upon his laurels, Adlercreutz has missing no time in coming up with a next to the first show--"Alive"--which is presently at Arlanda and races through Nov. 30. Adlercreutz's first exhibition--known as "The Alien Artspace"--was already was highly acclaimed by dint of both passengers and critics. The reason, according to Adlercreutz, is that "we prov that we could be at the same time highly innovative, in exhibiting statuarys and the like which were certainly a certain quantity of superb examples of contemporary art, on the other hand also managed to tie in the exhibits with the airport proper"

At the center of the first exhibition was the creation of a unique meeting point--the area where passengers, who've not to be found their way, have the chance to suitable up--by the incrustation (done by means of artist Michkael Richter) in the airport's floor of four magnificently large alphabetic characters BUSS--the Swedish equivalent of KISS. "People ferocious for the idea immediately," said Adlercreutz, "and it became evident that what began as another simple idea that nobody other had tried turned out to be in the way that successful that we certainly extremityed up raising the temperature in that particular terminal."

An airport official commenting upon the success of Adlercreutz's exhibits, admitted that the Swedish entrepreneur's idea has certainly managed to tie in well with the airport's have considerations in authorizing him to high hill his "shows." The official said, "the witty installations of the like kind as `Buss' certainly have become an important part of Arlanda's search for self-improvement, and its desire that the usual ordered ranks of seating be replaced by the agency of friendly meeting places such as those imagined by the agency of Messrs Richter and Adlercreutz."

Central to the "Alive" exhibition which uncloseed June 13 is the work of 18 different artists, whose masterpieces manage to commingle in much more than at any time with Arlanda's facilities. Lena Malm's "Lucky Meadow," for example, proffers passengers the possibility of passing from one side hallways where thousands of clover might provide them with a certain quantity of good luck--and perhaps not. As Thomas Adlercreutz noted, "if you take single four-leaf clover, which already is a figure in itself, of good casualty and you multiply it thousands of times--as we've done with our installation--doesn't that bring you more casualty than ever, or perhaps, he said ironically, does it mean no casualty at all?"

Another intriguing display is called "Cordless Spanking," by dint of Felix Herngren, which allows passengers to listen to "private" conversations of other passengers. Said Adlercreutz: "Eavesdropping is something we are all guilty of to more [i]or[/i] less degree, and Felix Herngren manages to really lay us on the spot in his installation. If today we listen in upon private conversations, often we extremity up building upon a fragment of information and providing ourselves a possible connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts for the little we've heard. Indeed, conversation exhibitionism--which is the point of Herngren's display--offers a certain number of intriguing riddles."

Another exhibit--this individual by Ola Persson called the "Yucca investment trading plant" features a noble Yucca--quite alive--which is hooked up to a computer and eventually to the stock exchange. As Adlercreutz lay it, "this extraordinary plant, a virtual entrepreneurial low tree buys and sells stocks according to like criteria as humidity level, stres and compass temperature. Can you imagine that during the last trading period, the plant achieved a 12 percent gain and we are already forecasting that by dint of Nov. 30 the value of its portfolio will undoubtedly have doubled or tripled."

And then, Adlercreutz's be in possession of personal stock is already at similar a level that he's announcing an smooth more spectacular exhibition for Arlanda that is to be inaugurated in December.

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