(kus) Frankfurt artist and Städel student Holger Wüst has won the 2017 VGF "Frankfurt-Bahn" art competition. His design shows a worker with a jackhammer in his hand, a postcard dated July 4, 1968 as a reminder of the first subway ride in Frankfurt, and links its history to that of the guest workers in the city, as instrumental in the construction of the subway. Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann and Transport Director Klaus Oesterling presented the train, designed according to the design, at the Stadtbahn Central Workshop on Tuesday, June 20.
The jury, consisting of the head of the city council Stephan Siegler, head of transport Klaus Oesterling, VGF managing director Thomas Wissgott, Jessica Beebone from the cultural office, Schirn curator Katharina Dohm, curatorial assistant Iris Hasler from the Städelmuseum, musician and comedian Henni Nachtsheim, curator of the DekaBank Collection Silke Schuster-Müller, and artist and lecturer at the Städelschule Wolfgang Winter, unanimously selected the winning design in May, taking into account functional requirements.
"Holger Wüst creates with the ‚Frankfurt-Bahn'&.sbquo; the portrait of a city that is at its most beautiful without ‚makeup' and is loved by Frankfurtians for that very reason. A feisty, humorous and self-confident Frankfurt, of which the citizens of Frankfurt are justifiably proud," says Klaus Oesterling, head of the city's transport department, explaining the jury's decision.
Holger Wüst, born in Duisburg Rheinhausen in 1970, studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and has since lived and worked in the Main city. In his works he deals with political and social issues, which he documents in large-scale collages of photographs.
With the delivery of the last and 224th vehicle of the type "U5" in June 2017, the modernization of the VGF fleet, which has been ongoing since 2008, has been successfully completed. The commissioning of the car with the number 696 is the occasion to give it a very special look. For this purpose, the VGF had announced the aforementioned art competition. The aim was to implement the theme "Frankfurt am Main" on a subway in a creative way.
The expert commission consisting of Stefanie Humbert from the Helaba Art Collection, Jonas Leihener from the Städelschule and the external art representative of the VGF, Manuel Raven, selected the participants together with the VGF. Nationally and internationally renowned artists with an individual connection to Frankfurt such as Andrea Büttner, Peles Empire, Moritz Grimm, Tina Kohlmann, Hannes Michanek, Claus Richter, Katharina Schücke, Manfred Stumpf, Stephen Suckale, Tomislav Vukic and Holger Wüst took the opportunity to create a design for the "Frankfurt-Bahn". The artists had five weeks to do so before they had to convince the jury with their designs on May 9, 2017.
The "Frankfurt-Bahn" will be used on all VGF underground lines with immediate effect.
