Pipilotti Rist is working on one of the new articulated trams to produce a mobile work of art that will interconnect all the other interventions and will be able to run on tram routes other than the number 14 if necessary.
By taking possession of the whole tram and immersing it in pink, Pipilotti Rist is making it into a monochromatic nomad in the heart of the city. Hers is a project that offers a merry, playful diversion from the major landmarks in art history (the monochromatic paintings by Kazimir Malevich or Yves Klein for instance) in a context of daily life. This intervention acts on the vehicle and also modifies the city as it passes through, irrupting onto the townscape.
As a sensual incursion into everyday experience, this project integrates a surprise factor, since it will never be possible to predict where or when the tram will pass by. This project has also been designed to kindle the travellers’ imagination; the positive connotations of the colour pink bestow an unrealistic aspect on it. As the artist puts it, it is as if the tram had “emerged from taking an exquisite bath in a sea of colour, with the drops of pigment still dripping today over the whole of its body”. It thus invites the traveller to get on board for a mystery tour. The artist finally defines the experience of this tram as “taking a meditative break, in which the travellers go through a modified awareness of such a familiar environment as the tram.”
Moreover, the artist is proposing to integrate mediation activities with different target groups in this project using monitors made available for the purpose by the tpg.
There is no escaping the fact that Pipilotti Rist’s project fits in perfectly with the idea of traffic, irruption and countryside transformation, quite apart from offering passengers a modified and surprising experience of public transport.
Since this pink tram is able to move around over the whole territory of Geneva, it is going to be extending the outreach of the art&tram project still further.