Jeppe Hein: Distance

Sørlandets Kunstmuseum is proud to present the installation Distance by the acclaimed Danish artist Jeppe Hein.

Jeppe Hein’s installations and sculptures initiate sensory experiences and invite the public to play an active role. Public participation is central to the installation Distance. When we enter the exhibition room, our presence is registered by a sensor and a ball is set in motion. The ball rolls at different speeds through several hundred meters of loops, lifts and spirals. We can follow our own personal ball through the labyrinth that transforms the exhibition space into a dynamic structure.

Distance was originally created in 2004, but for the exhibition at Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, a unique version of it has been made. Each time it is presented, the result is contingent on the specific exhibition space. In this way, the work invites us to question how we as viewers experience our environment and architectural surroundings. Hein’s installations can be described as interventions because they introduce new elements into art venues or public spaces in ways that destabilize normal viewing habits. Central themes in his works are people’s relation to their surroundings and psychological reactions to spatial change.

References to minimalism are also present in Hein’s works, particularly through the use of industrial materials, simple forms and repetition as a strategy in artistic production. Distance is complex in expression, resembling a large roller coaster, but it is built with simple, repeating components. Just as with other installations by Hein, our participation is crucial for the work’s completion. In this way, he challenges our experience of what art is and can be. Dialogue, laughter and social interaction are some of the main ingredients in works like this, which exist at the intersection between art, architecture, design and technology.

Distance is on loan from ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, and its instalment at Sørlandets Kunstmuseum has been accomplished through collaboration with ARoS, Jeppe Hein and Jeppe Hein Studio.

Jeppe Hein (b.1974) lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, graduating in 1997, and at Städelschule in Frankfurt (1997–99). He has held solo shows at Centre Pompidou in Paris, Tate Liverpool in England, MoMA/PS1 in New York, the Barbican Centre in London and the Sculpture Centre in New York. In 2009, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum organized Hein’s large solo exhibition Sense City, which resulted in the purchase of Distance for its own collection. Hein will also open a large solo show To Sense The World Inside Yourself, at The Museum of Religious Art in Lemvig, Denmark on June 4, 2017.