Fall 2015 Talks: Jeppe Hein

In the spirit of his engaging and interactive show Please Touch the Art at Brooklyn Bridge Park, Jeppe Hein presents his take on the artist lecture. Part performance, part audience participation game, and part interview, the event invites audience members to join Jeppe in an unexpected and revealing look at his practice.

Hein’s work places the viewer at the center of the art experience. Often conceived for public space, his sculptures invite a relational, interactive, and playful experience. For Hein, artworks that are functional can act as a catalyst for engagement—both with the work and among visitors. This talk coincides with the artist’s Public Art Fund exhibition Please Touch the Art (May 17, 2015-April 17, 2016 at Brooklyn Bridge Park) for whichhe has installed three forms of social sculptures in Brooklyn Bridge Park:Appearing Rooms, a systematically shifting architectural space formed by jets of water; Mirror Labyrinth NY, a site-specific installation of mirror-polished stainless steel that reflects and distorts the distinctive skyline of lower Manhattan; and sixteen bright red Modified Social Benches, alterations upon the familiar outdoor park bench, which actively engage visitors’ perceptions of public space with their curious curves and undulations.

Public Art Fund Talks at The New School are organized by the Public Art Fund in collaboration with the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School.

This program is made possible in part by Con Edison and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Jeppe Hein (b. 1974, Copenhagen, Denmark) lives and works in Berlin and Copenhagen. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, and the Städelschule, Frankfurt. He has had major solo exhibitions presented at institutions around the globe, including the Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2014); Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki (2013); Faena Arts Centre, Buenos Aires (2012); 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2011); IMA – Indianapolis Museum of Art (2010); ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark (2009); Barbican Centre, London (2007); and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2005), among many others. His work has also been shown in group exhibitions worldwide and is represented in major public collections, including those of the Neues Museum Nürnberg, Germany; Tate, United Kingdom; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, among others. He is represented by 303 Gallery in New York, Johann Koenig in Berlin, Galleri Nicolai Wallner in Copenhagen, and SCAI The Bathhouse in Tokyo.

The public realm offers unique possibilities to consider how personal experiences with artworks intersect with their broader social and cultural contexts. The Fall 2015 Public Art Fund Talks at The New School series brings together three artists who address this relationship in different ways. Jeppe Hein’s interactive and experiential public sculptures invite audiences to actively engage with the work. Intimate bench sculptures become private spaces where a pair of friends might perch, while large labyrinths of mirrors and water sculptures encourage the public to participate as a group. Hank Willis Thomas mines popular culture to expose dominant power structures and reveal the subjective nature of how we see and understand the world around us. His investigation of the nature of truth across cultures connects the personal with our broader public experience. Fiona Banner’s works often present a dual experience, using recognizable forms as representations of a more private narrative based on a particular subject of research. While the nature of looking at all art is inherently subjective, public space provides a unique context for examining the personal experience of art in connection with the broader cultural landscape.