Jeppe Hein – A Smile For You
Wanås Konst
Knislinge, Sweden
May 19 – October 27
Jeppe Hein’s titles – Moving Bench (2000), Smoking Bench (2003), Broken Mirror Cubes (2005), and Ice Cube (2005) – often tell you exactly what to expect. He has used the same descriptive formula for some of his exhibitions: a declaration or a list of ingredients. This approach echoes artists from the late 1960s. It’s hard to squeeze the contents of the exhibition at Wanås into just a brief description, but an attempt might read: 1 x campaign, 1 × venue, 10 × pieces outdoors, 4 × workshop stations indoors, 1 × sound installation. For the parallel exhibitions at Wanås and at Bonniers Konsthall, the artists have settled on the title A Smile For You. Jeppe Hein approaches the subject of happiness by asking other people to contribute, using as his starting point a joint media campaign that includes ads, postcards and posters, Facebook and even balloons inscribed with questions about happiness. The campaign and the response are incorporated into the exhibitions, alongside new and old work, and will result in a new publication, and eventually a collaborative round-table discussion. The title A smile For You may sound expressive for Jeppe Hein, but it is exactly what the artist has set out to achieve: “offer a moment of being right here right now,” and a smile to your face.
