British sculptor Anish Kapoor has described his work for the new Monte Sant’Angelo metro station in Naples as “a mix between sculpture and architecture, with a desire to guide an initiatory journey into the bowels of Naples.” The project, which began 22 years ago, was inaugurated only today after being delayed by administrative hurdles, legal disputes, and funding difficulties.
The project was conceived in the early 2000s under the then-Regional President, Antonio Bassolino, whom the artist thanked “for his great courage.” Kapoor and the current governor, Vincenzo De Luca, toured the station, which is expected to be operational within a month.
The two station exits—one inside the campus of the University of Naples Federico II and the other in the Rione Traiano district—are dramatically enhanced by Kapoor’s works. They evoke the myth of the Cumaean Sibyl from the Aeneid, transforming the passenger’s entrance into a visual metaphor for a descent into the Underworld.
A defining feature is the monumental sculpture at the university exit: a 220-ton, 19-meter-high structure shaped like a mouth that envelops the escalators and accompanies passengers on an immersive journey into the station. A second, similar sculpture at the other exit stands 11 meters high and weighs over 42 tons. The single-level underground environment, which slopes downward, is clad in spritz-beton, a material that reinforces the mythological imagery by evoking the interior of a cave.
“In the city of Vesuvius and the mythical entrance to the Underworld, I wanted to explore what it truly means to go underground, to also create a total and democratic work of art,” said Kapoor. The singular monumental “mouth” has drawn attention; Kapoor’s collaborating architect, Amanda Levete, once remarked that “only the mischievous could compare it to Courbet’s ‘L’Origine du monde’.”
Internal connections are made via escalators and diagonal elevators. “Naples’s long underground history led me to want to give form to the journey of taking the traveler underground. But the project also starts from my origins in Bombay, which has many connections to Naples. Here, however, I wanted to create a path that is like entering the bowels of Vesuvius.”
The station was built by Webuild, which has already constructed 14 stations for the Naples metro, including the celebrated “Art Stations” (Toledo, Dante, Museo), and is currently working on the Capodichino station.
The visit was punctuated by a gaffe from Governor De Luca. “We are grateful to you,” he told the sculptor, “for enriching our city with another sign of art, as this beautiful girl says—who is not only a good translator but is Kapoor’s daughter.” The governor was then informed that the woman was, in fact, the artist’s partner. “His wife, I apologize. In this too, Kapoor proves to be a creative. We are twinned from this point of view on tastes.” The remark was met with smiles from Kapoor and his partner, Oumaima Boumoussaoui, who was on stage with him.