Jeppe Hein: SENSE CITY

A four hundred meter ball track, a smoking bench, and a ball wrecking the museum walls are just a few of the experiences offered by the exhibition SENSE CITY when the young artist Jeppe Hein takes up residence in ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum this October. The exhibition invites you to enter a city for the senses where you can explore Jeppe Hein’s spectacular and innovative works; works which set art and spectators alike in motion.

This year, the year in which ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum celebrates its 150th anniversary, it gives us great pleasure to present the largest exhibition staged as yet of the internationally acclaimed Danish artist Jeppe Hein (b. 1974). Despite his tender years Jeppe Hein has already won many accolades on the international art scene, and his innovative, groundbreaking works have been shown at some of the most prominent museums worldwide. With the exhibition SENSE CITY ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum wishes to give Danish audiences a similar opportunity to experience Jeppe Hein’s dazzling and pioneering works.

Art benches in the city – on the way to SENSE CITY This summer, audiences have had the opportunity to experience Jeppe Hein’s art prior to the exhibition opening, for in July the artist placed ten works in the city of Aarhus, his so-called Modified Social Benches. Like Jeppe Hein’s other works created for public spaces, the benches aim at generating more life and energy in the city and at strengthening the sense of community which arises spontaneously when the urge for play, for creativity, is awakened in the people of the city. Modified Social Benches have already been greeted with enthusiasm in cities worldwide, such as Helsinki and Dublin, attracting a great deal of attention with their amusing, unconventional appearance and inviting people to play and be together. The benches will remain in place for the benefit of the people and visitors of Aarhus up until 21 September 2009.

The exhibition SENSE CITY The desire to generate interplay between art and social life also takes centre stage when the exhibition continues indoors at ARoS from 9 October onwards. The exhibition SENSE CITY presents Jeppe Hein on a major scale, showing a range of his largest, most important works. Visitors will experience this right from the moment they step into the museum, for the first thing to greet them will be the work Distance – the largest work so far created by the hand of Jeppe Hein. The work takes the shape of a long ball track, several hundred metres in length, on which balls make their way through the museum and the open street space via a complex sequence of loops, drops, and hoists. The encounter with the work Distance makes it clear that a dynamic, playful, and innovative artist has taken hold of ARoS! Jeppe Hein has worked on the exhibition for ARoS for several years in order to give it a unique feel. The result sees the museum’s exhibition gallery and foyer staged as a city for the senses with an architecture that allows audiences to explore Jeppe Hein’s spectacular works.

The spectator takes centre stage Jeppe Hein’s extensive artistic production can be most accurately positioned at the junction where art, architecture, and technical inventions intersect. In addition to having high artistic and aesthetic qualities his works are often interactive (moving walls, smoking benches, balancing balls, etc.). Jeppe Hein’s works often feature surprising and captivating elements which place spectators at the centre of events, and this focus on the spectator’s experience is the pivotal point of the exhibition.

Jeppe Hein The world has taken note of Jeppe Hein. In recent years he has contributed to many exhibitions worldwide and has staged solo exhibitions at e.g. the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Liverpool; PS1, New York; and most recently the Barbican Centre, London, and the Sculpture Centre, New York. Jeppe Hein is currently engaged in creating a major piece to be presented at the Danish pavilion at the EXPO2010 in Shanghai next year. Though still young, Jeppe Hein is already represented at prominent art museums such as Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, the MoCA Los Angeles, and the Lehnbachhaus in Munich and has also opened the popular bar/restaurant Karrierebar at Flæsketorvet in Copenhagen – a fusion between social life and art where most of the elements at the restaurant are created by international artists.

Catalogue The exhibition SENSE CITY is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated catalogue in English and Danish, featuring an introduction to the artist and his works. The catalogue includes texts by the curator behind the exhibition, Marie Nipper, ARoS; the art historians Peter Kirkhoff Eriksen and Christian Skovbjerg; the writer Finn Janning, the architect Bjarke Ingels (BIG); curator at the Centre Pompidou in Paris Christine Macel; the art critic Michel Gauthier; PhD Line Marie Bruun Jespersen; and the artists Olafur Eliasson and Ernesto Neto as well as an artists’ talk between Jeppe Hein and the US artist Dan Graham.

Jeppe Hein
SENSE CITY