'my work sharpens the senses' - jeppe hein on his growing breathe with me series (2025)

interview: jeppe hein launches breathe with me at UC san diego

The Stuart Collection at the University of California San Diego is hosting Danish artist Jeppe Hein‘s ongoing participatory public art project known as Breathe with Me. Designed topromote mental health, mindfulness, and community, this growing seriesinvites participants to paint vertical blue brushstrokes on a surface as they inhale and exhale, representing the rhythm and flow of their breathing, which Hein views as a fundamental and shared human experience.

‘My work sharpens the senses, raises their awareness and perception of their surroundings, and encourages a dialogue between them. […]Even though we all live different lives, we all breathe, and each breath keeps us together, connected, sharing the same air,‘Hein tellsdesignboom.Ultimately, by connecting breathwork withartistic expression, participants are encouraged to be more present, reflective, and empathetic. On the occasion of the UC San Diego launch, we spoke with the artist to further uncover the healing power of breathing and community, both championed by Breathe with Me.

Breathe with Me in Central Park, New York, 2019 | image © Jan Strempel / Studio Jeppe Hein, courtesy the artist

how conscious breathing defined the project worldwide

Based in Berlin and Copenhagen, Jeppe Hein is widely known for producing experiential and interactive artworks at thejunction where art, architecture, and technical inventions intersect.Conscious breathing became a critical element of theartist‘s life more than a decade ago when hebegan incorporating internal awareness into his work. ‘The awareness of my breath enables me to balance out the body and mind in all circumstances of life.A crucial example of this balance can be found in my work entitled Breathing Watercolours (2019),’he shares with us. This project, initially developed as an individual documentation, eventually scaled into an artwork that involved publicparticipation.

the power of self-awareness and community for healing

The essence of Breathe With Me unfolds in two layers. The first one sheds light on the importance of slowing down, centering ourselves, and recognizing the significance of mental health and self-awareness in our daily lives. This awareness materializes as vivid blue brushstrokes that symobilize ‘the invisible –our breath and the resultant relation between us. Since the sky can be seen by almost every living being, thus connecting us, and consists of the air we breathe, blue is the perfect colour to make the invisible visible,’ Jeppe Hein notes.

Walking us through the participant’s meditative actions, the artist explains how the ‘breath guides the strokes of the watercolour, to create a repetitive pattern of vertical blue lines painted onto a white paper or wall. Each line represents one breath. The colour is intense and vigorous at the beginning of each line, but gradually fades towards the bottom. Each line signifies the process of breathing in or breathing out in full awareness.’ Heingoes on saying that once all brushstrokes are gathered on the same canvas, the artwork not only symbolizes personal reflection but also a collective awareness that encompasses communities, societies, and the environment.

Breathe with Me in Central Park, New York, 2019 | image © Jan Strempel / Studio Jeppe Hein, courtesy the artist

This collective awareness reveals the project’s second layer honoring community, empathy, and shared spaces. According to Hein, easy access to art changes people’s behavior for the better. The communal nature of his work promotes unity, as people from different backgrounds and experiences come together and realize that we all share the essential human experience of breathing. ‘During the pandemic, it became even more obvious how important art in public space is […]. Since then, I have developed more public installations like my Social Playgrounds for cities and schools, my accessible water pavilion in front of Rockefeller Center that offers citizens a cooling in the hot city, and my Modified Social Benches that encourage dialogue between people worldwide […] Altogether, Breathe with Me has become a collective breath for the world,’ heelaborates.

In times of chaos and growing social unrest, public artworks like Breathe with Me help break down barriers and make room for dialogues and allow gentle check-ins with ourselves. ‘In general, I think it’s very important to ask yourself and to listen within yourself: How am I actually doing? How do I feel right now? And especially in these times, which are different for all of us – more stressful, worrying, uncertain – it is essential to always look at where am I right now. That’s what I try to encourage and support with my art,‘concludes Jeppe Hein.

Held at theEpstein Family Amphitheaterat UC SanDiego between October 24th and October 26th, 2024, the artist’s latest iteration of Breathe with Me joins the Stuart Collection’s 22 site-specific permanent installations at the university. It represents the collection’s first public program, a cross-departmental commissioninginitiative developed to encourage interaction between the UCSD student community and in-personprojects developed by internationally renowned artists. Programs are expected to occurduring the start of the school year.