In Jeppe Hein’s works, the viewer often activates the apparently relevant state of the work as, for example, with the fountain projects for public spaces – water is forced out of the jets – or with the work Enlightment B. This is a light sculpture, which is only switched on by a sensor. This has two levels; the viewer gives the work its meaning in the first place and the room where the work is also experienced in two states: with the activated work and without it. This changes not only the perception of the work, but also that of the room in which it stands. In this sense, these works are strongly contextual and architectural.

The work itself is assembled so as to be simple, not “designed” in a negative way but constructed in a way that is directly comprehensible. It uses the aesthetic excitement of complex bodies produced by the addition of basic geometry. It indicates the possibility of good, complex forms the likes of which are being increasingly displaced in everyday life by the thoughtless fulfilment of systemic compulsion dictated by uncritical and tasteless form givers.

Paul Katzberger, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)