Art on the Underground: New project launched at Stratford station

A project inspired by art in society launches in East London.

Transcript

00:00Transport for London Art on the Underground programme in partnership with New Contemporaries

00:07is presenting a new commission by artist Ahmet Ogut. The large-scale artwork titled Saved

00:13by the Whale's Tail Saved by Art examines the role of art in society and displays all

00:19over London's underground. The project was launched with a presentation at Stratford

00:25Underground Station and starting from April 2nd 2025, posters will be displayed across

00:31the London Underground Network, inviting Londoners to submit stories about how art has impacted

00:37their lives. The most compelling entry will be displayed alongside Ogut's new submission

00:43at Stratford Station on September 10th 2025. So this art project by the artist Ahmet, what

00:51he wants to do is really find out how art has changed people's lives, how art has saved

00:56people's lives and this all comes from a really interesting event that happened. It inspired

01:02the artist to think about the power of art to save lives. So in 2020 there was an incident

01:07in Rotterdam where a train, it wasn't in service, it was just coming to the end of

01:11a trial run and it went over the end of these stop blocks on an elevated platform and it

01:16was going to fall but it was saved by a public sculpture of a whale's tail that held up

01:22the carriage and it's a really amazing image and you know this happened in 2020, people

01:26were kind of stuck at home. It was seen around the world as this kind of complete visual

01:31image of how art saves people and this has really stuck with the artist. So when we were

01:36talking to him about how can we do a project that kind of gets into society, gets people

01:41thinking about the role of art, he was like let's ask them about the sense of being saved

01:45by art. I mean that could be literally like the whale's tail, literally saved by art,

01:49something blocking you or figuratively in terms of how it's impacted your life, how

01:54it's transformed your life and so today what we're asking for is the public to send us

01:58their personal stories of how art has saved them.

02:02But this project you're going to be, it's going to be just people from the public. How

02:06excited are you just to see the kind of Londoners that aren't you know typically artists in

02:12their day job, how excited are you to interact with that art as well?

02:16I'm really excited to see what the stories come in. I think as a moment also marked 25

02:20years to think you know let's hear from the public what their stories are, how art affects

02:25them. I feel hopeful that we're going to get a lot of really amazing, really personal stories

02:32that speak to something inside people and I think at this moment you know when there's

02:36a lot going on in the world, there are a lot of challenges, it's a really interesting way

02:39to kind of reflect on how art plays such a role in our lives and how it helps shape

02:44us and how it helps create empathy you know around us and so I think it's a really timely

02:49moment both for our 25-year history you know and with what's going on in the wider world

02:55just to kind of step back and see you know the value of art in our daily lives.