Title: Bubble Trouble, 2025
Technique: Street painting with design of furniture, free bicycles and decorative film on windows, etc.
Location: Hörnellgatan
Art consultant: Anna Karin Larsson
When we were asked to create a concept sketch for Hörnellgatan, it felt like an exciting but also challenging task.
From previous visits to Skellefteå, Hörnellgatan was always the preferred cycling route because of its low traffic. However, the street itself doesn’t leave much of an impression – it’s quite anonymous despite its central location, just a stone’s throw from Guldtorget and Sara Kulturhus.
Bringing life and a sense of identity to the street felt inspiring. What stood out most to us was the idea of adding lots of color – something impossible to ignore. A kind of monumental street painting in bold, vivid colors. A roughly 700-square-meter artwork to walk and cycle on, inviting both play and relaxation.
It would also be beneficial if Hörnellgatan could ease the pressure on the town square by offering alternative activities. Summertime street furnishings will be important, and we believe we can create an exciting atmosphere.
Both Akay and Olabo have a background in graffiti and began in the mid-1990s to experiment with new methods of using public space as an arena for their projects. Street art is a relatively new phenomenon that has developed from graffiti painting and has a lot in common with other subcultures. In Stockholm, there are still traces of their early interventions in the city in the form of posters, stickers, installations and graffiti. Olabo became known early on for his concrete hyenas and Akay for his posters that advertised the invented ideology Akayism.
In 2013 they started in earnest to work together with interactive works. Typical of Akay and Olabo is that they are interested in the spaces in between the city, which they activate and give new meaning. Examples of this are their work Växthuset, a forgotten waiting hall for the airport buses to Arlanda in Stockholm, which they transformed into a flourishing oasis, or the rope ladders made from the city's rubble which hang down from holes in the ceilings of empty demolished buildings. Their "LET IT REMAIN" text on the gas bell in Värtahamnen, which is threatened with demolition, can also be mentioned. The inspiring thing about their works is that they make the forgotten visible in a playful way and raise questions about participation and what art can be. Today they often work together with site-specific installations, films and images in abandoned office buildings in the Stockholm area.
ABOUT AKAY
During the late 1980s, Akay began painting graffiti and was part of the now cult group VIM (Vandals In Motion). Since the late 1990s, Akay has worked with sculptural objects, texts, actions and installations in public space. Several of his most famous works have been made together with other artists and under other names, The Barsky Brothers or AKKP (Akay and Klisterpeter), Brakay (Akay and Brad Downey), Guilty Guilty (Akay and Adams) to name just a few.
ABOUT OLABO
Olabo, initially Mr Olabo, resumed his artistic practice in the early 2000s by creating larger-format works for public spaces. The most notable work is “The Hyenas at Stureplan”, from 2010. The work was installed together with Folke, who also contributed to the information text that was installed at the site and described the lives and livelihoods of the hyenas of Stureplan. The work was a commentary on the increasing segregation and culture that existed around Stureplan at the same time.
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