CROMOS, 2000
Materials: Sunlight, Rome, Florence and Milan Railway Stations, 30 EuroStar trains, laser-cut flat prisms
Sustainable Travel – Sustainable Art
CROMOS was commissioned by the Italian State Railway, Ferrovia dello Stato, to celebrate the Millennium Year, and as an artistic intervention to lure travelers from high carbon air travel to low carbon rail travel. In CROMOS, Peter Erskine created Solar Spectrum Environmental Art installations in the Rome Termini station, Florence Santa Maria Novella station, Milan Central station and on 30 EuroStar high-speed trains running between Rome and Milan. The train sized solar spectrum beams glided through Termini station, lighting the stairs, walls and floor of the mail concourse with rainbows 80 feet wide and as long as 300 feet when the sun was low in the afternoon around Christmas time. See the photo with the red floor. Under Milan’s arched roof the modular prism stretched 6 feet wide and 140 feet long to flood spectrum beams across trains, passengers and platforms.
Worlds Largest Artwork?
Extending over 540 kilometers (325 miles) of ultra high-speed railway track, the geographic and architectural scope of the project probably makes it the largest artwork in the world. Over 5000 square feet of specially designed laser-cut prisms were used, including over 3.5 miles of prism in the 30 high-speed trains. However, the total project weight of all prism material used is less than 150 kilograms and virtually all the art materials will be recycled by the artist.
Ecologically, the Cromos project is an example of the “sustainability” principle of doing much more with much less.
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