From 9 February, visitors to ARoS can experience the Danish artist Jeppe Hein’s interactive work Distance from 2004 in a brand-new presentation. Distance is a 400-metre-long roller coaster, transforming the gallery on level 5 into a single large-scale movable structure. The work winds its way through the scenographic setting of the exhibition Agnes Slott-Møller – Heroes and Heroines.

- In the exhibition MOVE! we have decided to leave the scenography untouched so that colours, lighting, and wall texts from the previous exhibition remain unchanged. Practically everything except for the paintings has been left as it was. So, we are inviting visitors to join us for a different and unusual experience, says Pernille Taagaard Dinesen, curator, ARoS.

About Distance

A sensor registers when visitors step into the gallery space and a ball is promptly released. The ball starts its journey through the tracks and by following your ball, you will be moving about a jumble of loops, sharp corners, hoists, and drops. The work is designed in modular steel profiles, which means that the tracks of the roller coaster will vary from one presentation to the next.

Assisted by the New Carlsberg Foundation, ARoS acquired Distance following Jeppe Hein’s solo exhibition Sense Cityin 2009. The installation has since been loaned to the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art in the USA and to the Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in Kristiansand, Norway. 

About Jeppe Hein

Jeppe Hein (b.1974) lives and works in Berlin. He was educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 1997 and at the Städel Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Hein has achieved great recognition on the international art scene and his innovative and pioneering works have been shown at some of the greatest museums in the world, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate Liverpool in England, the PS1 in New York, the Barbican Centre in London, the Sculpture Centre in New York, and representing the Danish pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.

Jeppe Hein’s artistic production crosses the boundaries of art, architecture, and technical invention. His installations often contain elements of interactivity, inviting us to engage physically with the artwork and experience through our senses.

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