Modified Social Benches A-K

Out of investigating architecture, communication, and social behaviour in the urban space, a series of bench designs was born under the common title Modified Social Benches. The bench designs borrow their basic form from the ubiquitous park or garden bench, but are altered to various degrees to make the act of sitting a conscious physical endeavour. With their modifications, the benches transform their surroundings into places of activity rather than rest and solitude; they foster exchange between the users and the passers-by, thus lending the work a social quality. Due to their alterations, the benches end up somewhere between a dysfunctional object and a functional piece of furniture, and therefore demonstrate the contradiction between artwork and functional object.


Year: 2006
Materials: Powder-coated galvanised steel
Dimensions variable

Exhibitions:
Testigos/Witnesses, Fundación NMAC, Jerez de la Frontera, ES, 2006
Illusion, Sculpture Centre, New York, USA, 2007
Wonder, Singapore Biennial, SG, 2008
FRAC Basse-Normandie, Caen, FR, 2009
backyardoutdoorsculptureseries#5, Johann König, Berlin, DE, 2010
Wie kommt das Neue in die Welt?, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, DE, 2012
Slapstick!, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, DE, 2013
Slapstick! Die Kunst der Komik, LENTOS, Kunstmuseum Linz, AT, 2014Interact With Art - Modified Social Benches, Ventana Contemporary Ibiza, SP, 2016
SOMMER.FRISCHE.KUNST., Bad Gastein, A, 2016
The Street. Where the World Is Made, MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy, 2018
Jeppe Hein, SCAI PARK, Tokyo, JP, 2019


Permanent installation:
Fundación NMAC, Jerez de la Frontera, ES
Camp Reinsehlen, DE
Dublin Arts Council, Dublin, Ohio, USA
FRAC Basse-Normandie, Caen, FR Singapore, SG