JEPPE HEIN
EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW MOMENT

KÖNIG BERGSON is pleased to present, EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW MOMENT, a new exhibition of works by Jeppe Hein that fill the former silos of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk. 14 works populate the spaces, many of which employ mirrored surfaces, enabling viewers to become momentary participants in the reflected worlds engendered by Hein’s characteristic sense of inclusion. In the long corridors of the silos, viewers become involved in animating these modes of engagement, either by pausing to look and reflect or by interacting with the exhibited artworks and engaging with other visitors. Jeppe Hein’s playful approach encourages participation and raises awareness, mindfulness and empathy giving his works a social quality.

In the first room of the silo, the work EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW MOMENT, 2020, greets visitors and lays the groundwork for the transformations and transfigurations of perception to come. The rotational movement of the mirrored disc creates a disjointed apprehension of the space, as if the room were perpetually reconstructed by an ever-changing combination of reflected fragments, reminiscent of the view through a kaleidoscope. On its opposite side, three mirror balloons are each tied to a birch stem with a white ribbon (LET'S FLY AWAY III, 2023). Due to their shape and reflective surface, the balloons produce a distorted perspective of the surrounding space, similar to a fish-eye view. Only the birch stem seems to prevent the balloons from soaring into the air and expanding the reflection to the infinite.BREATHE ME IN BREATHE ME OUT, 2023, follows, another mirrored work, this time with white neon letters that illuminate with the specific sequence of the titular phrase, appealing to viewers to breathe accordingly, and in so doing, encouraging an acute awareness of the present moment. In the same room, viewers are given the opportunity to visualize their mood on one of the wooden panels (TODAY I FEEL LIKE … violet / ultramarine blue, 2023), while a mirror in the shape of a speech bubble asks to SAY IT ALL WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING (MIRROR SPEECH BUBBLE), 2022. In recent years, Jeppe Hein realized various artworks and educational projects through which he invites people and most notably children to be aware of themselves, but also their communities, societies, and environment.YELLOW MODIFIED SOCIAL BENCH #10, 2021, offers a moment to pause and perform the breathing exercise thoroughly or to look at the variety of faces painted by former visitors. The bench is part of Hein’s series of Modified Social Benches based on his long-term research into proxemics and distance and borrow their basic form from ubiquitous park or garden benches found the world over. In their “modified” form, the benches transform their surroundings into places of social activity and foster dialogue between the users and the passer-by.

Further iterations of Hein’s long-standing artistic practice are also displayed, such as the spellbinding 2004 work, FUSION OF MOVEMENT, which captures a radical mode of equivalence between transformation and stasis, as a series of metal cubes welded into each other resemble a cube turning from one side to the next in different stages, and the six-sided viewing device (FIELD OF VISIONS, 2005) that makes viewers aware of the limitations as well as the possibilities inherent in the act of looking.

An equally blurred perception of space arises while walking into the last silo, where a curved line of mirror lamellae placed equal distances apart describes the form of a speech bubble (SPEECH BUBBLE MIRROR LABYRINTH I, 2023). Reality and reflection combine to produce an unfamiliar and disorientating situation similar to the experience in a labyrinth that is increased with the movement of the viewer.In the capacious Atrium of the Bergson Kunstkraftwerk, EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW MOMENT continues with more MIRROR BALLONS  and a selection of ROTATING MIRRORS, 2018, using these subtle devices to challenge our perception and visually transform other reaches of the former industrial site. As an addendum of the exhibition in the silos, Hein understands these parallel spaces as a further site for dialogue between work, viewers and surrounding.

© Images Georg Stirnweiß