Emscherkunst & Connecting Views – the future, by telescope
- Series: EMSCHERKUNST
Emscherkunst as a catalyst for a new perspective on things – with his project „Connecting Views“, Danish artist Jeppe Hein provides this opportunity. He has installed telescopes at eight different locations on the Emscher island. Looking through them changes reality.
„Connecting Views“ deals with the geopolitical and historical aspects of the Northern Ruhr because Jeppe Hein focuses on the interaction of art and society. The relation of an individual to his environment and his reaction to geographical changes are the main issues of his work. For the project, he installed telescopes at eight locations. These provide unreal views of the surrounding environment by means of an animated or retouched image. Thus, a lettering appears on the Gasometer in Oberhausen, and you can also take a look into the future when seeing the final stage of the Emscher renaturation in 2020.
Jeppe Hein who lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin, draws parallels between these cities and the Ruhr, distinguishing between an inside and outside perception of a city. The 36-year-old considers art as the motor of change: „You know that art often has spurred the development of a city.“ According to Hein, the artists are often followed by restaurants and cafés which add more diversity and life to the city’s districts. Hein: "Apart from Berlin, Copenhagen, or New York, are also examples of such processes."
On the long run, the Ruhr could also draw an economical benefit from its artists. Until that happens, Hein’s telescopes of „Connecting Views“ offer an outlook into this future. Is Emscherkunst.2010 worth its money? Jeppe Hein answers this question with a loud and clear „Yes“.
Interaction of art and society
„Connecting Views“ deals with the geopolitical and historical aspects of the Northern Ruhr because Jeppe Hein focuses on the interaction of art and society. The relation of an individual to his environment and his reaction to geographical changes are the main issues of his work. For the project, he installed telescopes at eight locations. These provide unreal views of the surrounding environment by means of an animated or retouched image. Thus, a lettering appears on the Gasometer in Oberhausen, and you can also take a look into the future when seeing the final stage of the Emscher renaturation in 2020.
Art as the motor of change
Jeppe Hein who lives and works in Copenhagen and Berlin, draws parallels between these cities and the Ruhr, distinguishing between an inside and outside perception of a city. The 36-year-old considers art as the motor of change: „You know that art often has spurred the development of a city.“ According to Hein, the artists are often followed by restaurants and cafés which add more diversity and life to the city’s districts. Hein: "Apart from Berlin, Copenhagen, or New York, are also examples of such processes."
On the long run, the Ruhr could also draw an economical benefit from its artists. Until that happens, Hein’s telescopes of „Connecting Views“ offer an outlook into this future. Is Emscherkunst.2010 worth its money? Jeppe Hein answers this question with a loud and clear „Yes“.
Text: Mira Prgomet
Thu, 10.02.2011
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These days, more than 5 million inhabitants do experience the transformation of their post- industrial Ruhr area in the western part of Germany to an exciting European „place to be“, a budding metropolis in a post-Capital of Culture 2010 identification process with its industrial culture as part of a collective memory being a characteristic feature – and an orchestrated mass event.
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