On the occasion of his artist in residence at Alexander Calder’s Atelier in Saché, from September 2009 to January 2010, Jeppe Hein realised the project Circus Hein, inspired by Alexander Calder’s own circus project from the 1920’s. Referring to the Latin meaning of the word circus, Jeppe Hein invited 35 artists to circle under a big top organizing a series of acts in an open artistic arena culminating in the group show at the Atelier Calder and FRAC Orléans. Following the presentation in Saché, Circus Hein did guest at Open Space / Art Cologne 2010.
One of the artists who joined the circus troupe is the Danish artist Søren Engsted. On the occasion of the opening of Open Space at Art Cologne 2010 he performed a horse training with balloons in horse shape.
Søren Engsted was born in Ringsted, Denmark, in 1974. He studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen (DK) and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (AT). Solo Exhibitions include Get your gin/tonics and run, Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna (AT); Das Nebenzimmer (in collaboration with Lasse Kragh), Bell Street Project Space, Vienna (AT); and Bananasplit (in collaboration with Christoph Meier), Kunsthaus Graz (AT).
Søren Engsted Performance at Circus Hein / Open Space, Art Cologne 2010. Cologne / Germany, April 20, 2010.
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All the Circus Hein projects deal with the theme art & circus and focus on magic, illusion, performance, participation, humour, sensations, suspense and amusement. Works have been created alluding to traditional circus acts like acrobatics, aerial acts with trapeze, juggling, daredevil stunts like human cannonball, fire eating and magic shows, the performance of strongmen, tightrope walkers, animal tamers, stilt walkers, clowns, unicyclers and pantomimes. Moreover, different forms of circus architecture and circus sculptures with all kind of materials have been designed.
The following artists join the circus troupe: Kristoffer Akselbo, All the way to Paris, après nous, Kenneth A. Balfelt & King Ayisoba, Nina Beier, Emilie Bergrem, Kaspar Bonnén, Cirque d’ENBA Lyon, Cocktaildesigners, Søren Engsted, Fanfare Talku Hot, Thilo Frank, Max Frey, Jeppe Hein, Institut d’Arts Visuels d’Orléans, Bjarke Ingels / BIG, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Finn Janning, Jacob Dahl Jürgensen, Annette Kelm, John Kí¸rner, Jason Kraus, Claus Larsen, Let me show you the world, Mads Lindberg, Florian Neufeldt, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Michael Sailstorfer, Tomas Saraceno, Tove Storch, Kristian Sverdrup, Koki Tanaka, Henrik Vibskov, Ulrik Weck, Jordan Wolfson.