Together Apart Installations

Project Type: Cultural, Pavilion
Designer: Behin Ha
Location: Denmark, Billund
Year: 2020
Size: unspecified
Photo Credits: Ard Jongsma, Johnny Madsen

Installed at two sites in Denmark, Behin Ha’s Together Apart Billund and Together Apart Middelfart was commissioned for the 2020 Trekanfest in the Triangle Region of Denmark. The projects are a sequel to Behin Ha’s 2019 installation, Coshocton Ray Trace, in Coshocton, Ohio. The projects were installed in late August for the Trekanfest festival, during which they were the site of various performances and gatherings.

Each installation consists of nearly 400 coated mesh fabric ribbons stretched between building rooflines and the ground. Connected to the ground along an undulating line that curves in on itself, the ribbons create a series of cellular spaces. While the surface generated by the ribbons separates the individual spaces, its porosity provides visual interconnectivity between them. The interplay between the linear top anchor positions and the curved ground anchor pattern gives rise to differentiated and complex conditions of visual overlap, density, and transparency. The bright orange color of the installations create a focal point and invites curious passers-by to interact with the work.

The installations were constructed by a team of volunteers organized by the client and led by professional builders. The assembly procedure was designed to be straightforward so that volunteers from the community could take part in installing the work. After the construction of anchoring positions at the roofline and the ground, the coated mesh ribbons were tensioned between pre-designated anchor points at the top and bottom and stapled in place. A twist induced in the ribbons by a difference in the anchor orientations at the top and bottom makes the installations more transparent at eye level, and more opaque on top.

The projects’ design was influenced by Behin Ha’s reflections on the nature of social gatherings during the 2020 pandemic. Pondering the conflict between the human desire to come together on the one hand, and the epidemiological need to maintain separation on the other, the installations attempt to capture the tension between gathering together and remaining apart by creating multiple interconnected but individuated and isolated spaces.