SUBTERRANEAN

When we catch the tube, few of us take the time to notice the décor and interior architecture of the different stations. Too busy rushing against the clock, who actually registers the paintwork on the corridors, the colours of the handrails, and the style of the lighting? In many respects, the underground network represents a series of non-places, which serve only as a means of travelling from one destination to the next. The minutes that we spend waiting on the platform are considered lost and wasted, inducing impatience and stress, never curiosity and fascination. And following July 7, 2005, the non-enthusiasm of using the tube versus the daily necessity of commuting to work is even more acute.

As always, it falls to the artist to shift the focus and encourage a renewed reading. Born in Valencia in 1975, Raúl Belinchón has photographed dozens of Europe’s metro stations for his Underground Cities series. The labyrinthine network, with all its intersections, escalators, conveyor belts, tunnels and corridors leading to innumerable platforms, is dissected through the third eye of the camera’s lens. What emerges through the panoramic, symmetrical images is how the stations visually convey certain types of districts in certain cities. It’s as if Belinchón has decided to analyse the comparative affluence and cultural modernity of Europe’s capitals by photographing these “sub cities” underneath.

Travelling from Madrid to Lisbon, Rome, Milan, Paris, London and Berlin, Belinchón has criss-crossed the map of lines governing how people travel underground in each metropolis. Through shooting the stations at night, when he was the only person there, he has succeeded in proposing a new vision of the stations, as if we are noticing them for the first time. The canary yellow and red paintwork of King’s Cross is suddenly juxtaposed against the bright blue of Oxford Circus. In visible; the geometric, delineated blocks of colour are impossible to ignore. Even though the nature of the stations remains impersonal and unreal, it becomes obvious how the various architectural designs can affect one’s mood.

The collective solitude of the unthinking crowd is replaced by that of the lone photographer. Within the stillness of these moments, the public place gives way to private contemplation to frame an image. So it follows that the captured, un-peopled scene could provide the setting for an imaginary, cinematic shot. A young woman in high heels could be running down a staircase in a Hitchcock thriller, her gloved hands gripping the handrails in the menacing darkness. Or Burgess’ Alex and his droogs could be creating mayhem down a white-tiled corridor. In the tranquillity of personal reflection, the situational arena becomes infused with ideas. In these instants, the décor and interior architecture of each station take on a paramount importance and the subterranean non-places provide the stimulus of inspiration.