Jeppe Hein before a speech-bubble message and chalk panel, elements of the artist?s multimedia, interactive project for Ruinart Carte Blanche 2022, ?Right Here, Right Now?
When Danish artist Jeppe Hein was given the coveted Carte Blanche commission by champagne house Ruinart, he was determined to create something quite different, by taking art-fair visitors back to nature and making an appeal to the senses. Candice Tucker reports
We are lying on the ground surrounded by by trees, breathing slowly, ever more slowly. The silence and peace is palpable. Stress ebbs away, nature flows through us. There is a gentle waft of incense and the sounds of the countryside.
It is a comforting, uplifting experience, probably about as far from the hubbub and glamour of an art fair as conceivable. And that is just what the Danish artist Jeppe Hein had in mind, when he took us on an excursion as part of his Ruinart Carte Blanche commission. The artist experiencing the Ruinart estate through the senses, part of the responsive idea of his Carte Blanche work
Carte Blanche is Ruinart?s annual series, begun in 2017, in which leading global artists are given, well, carte blanche, to create what they like (well, almost ? there are some limits, we imagine), as a tribute to the historic champagne house. The artists? resulting work, in this case Hein?s ?Right Here, Right Now?, and a rolling associated art programme (of which we were part in this moment) then travel the globe to be showcased at the worl...