Exhibition site of Springhornhof at Camp Reinsehlen near Schneverdingen (about 16km (10mi) north of Neuenkirchen)

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Jeep Hein, Loop Bench (2009) – Camp Reinsehlen near Schneverdingen

The loop bench, which Jeppe Hein placed on the edge of a wide grass and heath area in the middle of Lüneburger Heide, is hard to overlook. The bright white sculpture looks as if a harmless park bench had mutated into a fast-paced roller coaster. It marks the beginning of “Parcours” (course) which the Danish artist ironically locates at the former military site, Camp Reinsehlen at Schneverdingen.

The works exist along a circular route, among military building relics and remnants of World War II airfields and British armories. They are all reminiscent of park benches, minus their functionality. Each “bench” is deformed or alienated in some way: too high, too deep, seemingly broken or bent into a circle.

The highlight of the art course, however, is quite inconspicuous. On the edge of the water tank for the former armored car wash station is a simple wooden bench. During summer months, if you sit down, a 20m (66ft) high water fountain rises in the middle of the basin. There is a provocative dialogue in the juxtaposition of the harsh architecture with the poetic event. However, as is so often the case in the work of Jeppe Hein, the work of art manifests itself only through first-hand perception.

In the summer of 2007, Jeppe Hein won the “Landschaftskunstpeis NEULAND” for “Parcours”, which was sponsored by the Lower Saxony Foundation together with the Stiftung (foundation) Springhornhof and in close cooperation with the Institute of Landscape Architecture at the Leibniz Universität Hannover.

Publication: Neuland – Landscape Between Reality and Imagination. Hg. by Bettina von Dziembowski, Udo Weilacher and Joachim Werren. Birkhäuser, 2009. €32.95

Jeppe Hein (Born 1974 in Copenhagen) is a Danish sculptor living in Berlin. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and at the Städel-Hochschule (University) für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt. His works are exhibited internationally, including the Tate Liverpool (A Secret History of Clay), the Contemporary Performing Arts Gallery in Leipzig (Performative Installation), and New York’s Museum P.S.1 (Flying Cube).

For further information please contact  Schneverdingen Touristik.