BERLIN.- KÖNIG GALERIE presents Jeppe Hein with YOU ARE NEVER REALLY ALLONE in the Nave of St. Agnes. Hein is known for works that place the viewer at the center of experience and use simple forms to shift the perception of space.

In this exhibition, he reworks his mirror balloon sculptures as penguins that have floated from the ceiling to the ground. Their highly polished surfaces reflect and distort the surrounding architecture and the viewer, while the balloon form shifts from abstract volume to a body oscillating between weight and lightness. The figures appear suspended in stillness, as if they have drifted into the building from another environment.

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Each sculpture is named after regions associated with penguin habitats, including Chile, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, Namibia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Galápagos Islands. The names are drawn from Indigenous languages and refer to ideas of care, guidance, nature, and presence.

Each figure is placed on a pale stone collected by the artist along the Danish coast. Together, they suggest a moment of pause, as if the penguins have come to rest and are quietly observing their surroundings, inviting the same attention from the viewer.

The spelling ALLONE combines “all” and “one” and suggests that individuality and collectivity exist at the same time. It points to a shared condition of presence in which human and non-human forms of life are continuously reflected in one another.

The mirror surfaces ensure that perception is never fixed. Everything shifts with the viewer’s position. The body and the surrounding space are reflected back into the work, and movement becomes part of the experience. Small changes in perspective continuously reconfigure the relationship between viewer, sculpture, and environment, opening a more connected way of seeing the natural world.

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 surprising and captivating elements that place spectators at the center of events and focus on their experience and perception of the surrounding space.

Solo shows took place at UC San Diego – Stuart Collection, San Diego (2024), The Artbarn, Cape Schanck (2023); Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel (2023); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2022); Rockefeller Center, New York City (2022); Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a. M. (2020); UN Headquarters and Central Park, New York City (2019); Kunstmuseum Thun, Thun (2018); Château La Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (2017); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg (2015); Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York (2015); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2013); 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2011); IMA - Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis (2010); ARoS Kunstmuseum, Århus (2009); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2009); Carré d’Art - Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes (2007); Sculpture Center, New York (2007); The Curve, Barbican Art Centre, London (2007); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2005) and P.S.1. MOMA, New York City (2004) among others. He participated in La Biennale di Venezia’s 58th edition in 2019 and 50th edition in 2003. In 2022 he received the Carte Blanche by Maison Ruinart.

Permanent installations are on view in Neuer Kanzlerplatz Bonn (2023); Frederiksberg Allé, Copenhagen, Denmark (2023); at ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Ishøj (2021); La Guardia Airport, New York City (2020); Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles Island (2018); Kistefos- Museet, Jevnaker (2016); Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2013); City of Perth (2012); KUNSTEN Museum for Modern Art, Aalborg (2011) and Bristol University, Bristol (2009) among others.


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