JEPPE HEIN
PATH OF SILENCE

KISTEFOS-MUSEET, JEVNAKER, NORWAY
PERMANENT INSTALLATION SINCE 2016

Inspired by the remarkable topography of the landscape of the Kistefos Sculpture Park, the stepped slope and terraces beside the Industry Museum, where the power and energy of water are directly visible and give the site a special quality, a free form is adapted to the shape of this landscape, thus creating a dialogue between the place and the object.

The sculpture is defined by an extensive mirror labyrinth that encloses three spaces of silence: A contemplative space, where an enclosure of high mirror steles promotes an upward glance to the sky, a natural space, where a tree inside the sculpture links the inside with the outside and an active space where walls of water appear and disappear, thus offering ever-changing perspectives of the surroundings. The water flow is expressed in the spiral movement of the installation and most notably continued in the fountain. The mirror installation refers to the landscape in a more complex way, consisting of individual styles that stand at various heights based on their position. The water pavilion is unique in its form and materiality, since a mosaic of local stones is used as a base and arranged in a pattern derived from the frequency Watercolours.
The rushing water creates a different kind of silence, a noise behind which everything else fades, encouraging visitors to clear their minds and listen to their inner voices.

Walking through the installation will be like walking through the Norwegian landscape in miniature. Through three dimensions of silence, and moments of contemplation, concentration, seclusion, and dialogue between oneself, others, and nature, visitors will be able to experience the site as a source of inner silence.
PATH OF SILENCE, 2016
460 mirror lamellae: highest grade mirror stainless steel, aluminum, and stainless steel substructure; water, stainless steel basin, brass nozzles, stainless steel pipes, stainless steel grids, pumps, programmed control, Norwegian slate; oak bench; Norwegian boulders, maple tree, slate gravel, granite stairs
4,5 x 33 x 25 m, diameter water pavilion: 11,6 m

© Images Thomas Reining and Frederic Boudin

FEATURED ARTIST

JEPPE HEIN
Jeppe Hein (b. 1974 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish artist based in Berlin. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Städel Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Jeppe Hein is widely known for his production of experiential and interactive artworks that can be positioned at the junction where art, architecture, and technical inventions intersect. Unique in their formal simplicity and notable for their frequent use of humor, his works engage in a lively dialogue with the traditions of Minimalist sculpture and Conceptual art of the 1970s. Jeppe Hein’s works often feature...
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