All you need for the largest underground art gallery in the city is a subway ticket. Since the beginning of the sixties, when the underground public transport project began to take shape, the Brussels metro system has been transformed into a lively museum, with numerous works of art decorating platforms, ticket rooms and corridors.

In the beginning of the sixties, the underground public transport project began to take shape. The guiding principle in the construction of this new network was to create an open, vivid and original environment. The traveler could pass through stations, each with their own atmosphere and identity, but in which he also could discover some constant elements.

Noble materials were used to create an impression of comfort and luxury. The designers of the underground in Brussels, supported by the minister of mobility at that time, decided that Art could not be left out.

It seemed appropriate to confront the traveler in his daily routine with contemporary art such as paintings and sculptures. Although present everywhere, on classical sites as well as in modern cities, art nevertheless remained the domain for the privileged few. But it should not only belong in museums, palaces, cultural centers, wealthy financial institutions or in private collections.

Nowadays, the Brussels metro has become a lively museum. Numerous works of arts decorate platforms, ticket rooms and corridors. Every medium is represented, paintings, sculptures, photographs, stained-glass windows, as well as every type of material, from canvas to bronze and from wood to glass over steel.

Art is taking over the underground and as a result the underground becomes art. Both are doing fine.

http://www.stib.be/kunst-metro-art.html?l=en