Jeppe Hein: Under the Surface
SMK - National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen
1 April – 22 October 2023
Photo by Hendrik Hähner / Studio Jeppe Hein
Courtesy: Jeppe Hein
Breathe with Me at Moderna Museet, 2022
Courtesy: KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 GALLERY, New York,
and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Photo: Åsa Lundén
Breathe with Me at Moderna Museet, 2022
Courtesy: KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 GALLERY, New York,
and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Photo: Åsa Lundén
How are you today? How do you feel about the world around you? Can you let go of your thoughts and just be in the moment?
SMK Thy launches its new season presenting an exhibition created by the internationally renowned artist Jeppe Hein (b. 1974) who encourages the museum’s visitors to pause, open their minds, take a deep breath and notice how they feel.
Mingling humour and serious reflection, he invites you to enter a world with plenty of room for play, dialogue, creativity and contemplation. Here, visitors have the opportunity to put their personal stamp on the exhibition’s four interactive works, all of which rely on the guests’ participation to fully unfold.
“This is an invitation to activate your senses, to be inspired, to share your perspective, to open up your heart, to do something you are maybe not used to do, to step out of your comfort zone and to find out something about yourself that you were not aware of. What is under your surface? The answer is within you!” says Jeppe Hein.
Today I feel like … Right Here Right Now, 2022
Courtesy KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 GALLERY, New York,
and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Photo: WebStyleStory
Today I feel like … Right Here Right Now, 2022
Courtesy KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 GALLERY, New York,
and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen
Photo: WebStyleStory
On display in ‘Pakhuset’ at Doverodde Købmandsgård, the participatory works include Breathe with Me, which has been shown all over the world in places such as New York, Beijing and Stockholm.
Here, Jeppe Hein asks the guests to take a brush, dip it in blue paint and paint vertical brushstrokes on the wall in time with their exhale. During the exhibition period, a growing number of lines will appear, reflecting how we are all connected through our breathing and how we breathe the same air, regardless of where in the world we live.
In Today I feel like… visitors can pick up a piece of chalk from a local limestone quarry and use it to draw their current mood in one of the many circles marked out on the walls.
The museum also presents an all-new work created specifically for the exhibition in Thy. Here, Jeppe Hein collaborates with the photographer and local Thy resident Fredrik Clement, who has photographed the west coast of Thy with its crashing waves, surfers and sand. Under the Surface features five of these photographs, displayed on a grand scale. Using brush and paint, Jeppe Hein has added new details and layers to the scenes, and visitors are invited to do the same on smaller posters.
Photo: Jan Strempel Photography
JEPPE HEIN (b. 1974) is a graduate from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt. He is particularly known for his interactive works, where he makes use of surprising and captivating elements that place the audience at the centre of events and focus on their perception of the surrounding space.
Jeppe Hein has exhibited all over the world, including at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Rockefeller Center, New York City, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Permanent installations by Jeppe Hein can be found at ARKEN, Ishøj, La Guardia Airport, New York, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, among others.
SMK - STATENS MUSEUM FOR KUNST
NATIONAL GALLERY OF DENMARK
Sølvgade 48-50 - 1307 Copenhagen
