Upcoming

Reflections on Breathing by Danish artist Jeppe Hein arrives at the Vanhaerents Art Collection Project Space on Saturday 25 April 2026.

The exhibition brings together Hein’s participatory breathing project Breathe With Me, a selection of Modified Social Benches, and a group of rotating mirror sculptures.

At the heart of the exhibition lies Breathe With Me, a large-scale participatory artwork that invites visitors to paint their own breath. Each exhale is translated into a simple blue line on the canvas walls — one line per breath. Over time, these individual gestures accumulate into a collective drawing: a shared portrait of presence, mindfulness, and connection.

Both intimate and universal, Breathe With Me transforms the act of breathing into a moment of reflection on ourselves, our communities, and the world around us. First initiated in 2019 in collaboration with ART 2030 and presented at the United Nations Headquarters and in Central Park, New York, the project has since travelled internationally, inviting audiences across cultures and contexts to participate in a collective breath for the world.

The exhibition is further expanded through Hein’s Modified Social Benches, a long-running series that emerged from his investigations into architecture, communication, and social behaviour in public space. Based on the familiar form of the park bench, these sculptural works are subtly — and sometimes radically — altered. By disrupting comfort and symmetry, the benches turn sitting into a conscious physical experience, encouraging interaction, movement, and exchange between users and passers-by. Rather than spaces of rest alone, they become places of activity and social engagement.

Complementing these works are Hein’s Rotating Mirrors: suspended, double-sided mirror sculptures that slowly rotate within the space. Through fragmentation, reflection, and motion, the mirrors continuously recompose the surrounding architecture and its visitors. As reflections shift and overlap, the space appears multiplied and infinite, offering ever-changing perspectives that cannot be perceived with the naked eye alone.

Together, these works create an environment that invites participation, awareness, and play — gently guiding visitors to slow down, breathe, and become conscious of their presence within a shared space.

Mark your calendars — and get ready to breathe, reflect, and be part of something bigger.