PETTERSEN & HEIN: A View from the Present 1-13

Specifically for Copenhagen Contemporary, the art and design duo Pettersen & Hein have created the piece A View from the Present 1–13 in front of the exhibition halls. The artwork consists of thirteen concrete benches which for a year and a half will add colour to the raw industrial area.

The Norwegian artist Magnus Pettersen and the Danish furniture designer Lea Hein make up the duo. Since 2015 they have collaborated to create works in the crossfield between art and design. Often Pettersen & Hein experiment with raw industrial materials like concrete and metal shaped into simple geometrical forms.

The grey concrete is given new life by Pettersen & Hein’s special dyeing techniques where pigments in orange, turquoise, dark blue and purple form random patterns of colour in the normally monochrome, hard material. The colours help to make the concrete come alive, and the work thus reflects how CC is breathing new life into the former warehouse halls on Papirøen. In contrast to the lightness and the natural in Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree Garden Pettersen & Hein’s A View from the Present 1–13 creates a sense of weight. But like the trees the benches will also change over time, when wind and weather, the salt from the sea and people’s use of them leave their traces on the material. The rounded edges invite you to sit down and spend time at the quayside. The work thus urges both togetherness and relaxation with a view of the inner Copenhagen harbour.