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Fig. 4 Dorte Dahlin: The Green Square. 1993. Hirtshals in Northern Jutland, Denmark.and other colourful plants from the surrounding dunes, is like a lush island that hasemerged from the sea. The stripes in the big oval point towards a little niche in thesheltering wall, where there is a weather station that registers the wind velocity.This weather station regulates the water supply of the two four-metre long basinspointing directly east-west and gazing like two small eyes towards the sea, just asso many of the town inhabitants do. The water follows the shifting movements ofthe sea. The lyme grass in the Heart of the Square, with its finely intertwined steellatticework, bends in the strong westerly wind and may be viewed as a symbol ofthe harsh life of the population up here on the North West coast.Peter Holst Henckel belongs to a younger generation. He is in principal in agreementwith Serra’s conception of the relationship between art and its surroundingsbecause - as he expresses it: “art is not an isolated world in itself.” 10 But Peter Holst10 Peter Holst Henckel, The (Greenhouse effect), Horsens Art Museum, 2003, p. 33.Henckel also includes a range of new components in the definition of the visual arts’relation to the public space and to the public as such. He has defined them thus:”It is my ambition, starting in the concrete context, to qualify space, environmentand everyday life with integration of an extra artistic dimension in the construction.By bearing in mind the artistic dimension, as a different, surprising andambiguously poetic and aesthetic asset, from early on in the developmental process,the foundation is laid for the creation of a new, humane and dialogic-baseddesign. By considering the artistic dimension as an integrated part of planning,design and function, the aim is to add, to both process and end product, actual humanand experiential values.” 11He also emphasises that for him the virtual world is an important part of the publicspace and that film, TV and other electronic media ”perhaps constitute the mostsignificant part of our common frame of reference.” 12 Direct communication with thepublic has a central position in his site-specific projects, which also contain a criticalattitude to social problems and include other genre within the arts, such as poetry.His project for Hadsund School (2005) (fig. 5) is thus created in collaborationwith the author Ursula Andkjær Olsen. The work is sited in the pupils’ meeting areawhich is a counterpart of the town’s squares.The work itself is formed as a rotunda with painted sections covered withmounted text written by Andkjær Olsen. They are full of humour and earnestness,philosophy and poetry and appear therefore as a polyphonic pattern of meaningthat inspires both teachers and pupils.On the international scene various forms of graphics have also entered the publicspace and conquered it. The Austrian artist Günther Selichar is one who has takenthis step. He has expanded his interest with coloured screen surfaces to the publicrealm in several public art “interventions” which he has staged since 1993 in NewYork City, Boston, Shanghai, China and various European cities. In 2004 Selicharwas invited by Creative Time, a temporary public art commissioning agency in NewYork City, to create a digital animation for its program “The 59th Minute” on thePanasonic screen in Times Square.11 Peter Holst Henckel – f.pdf (298K)12 Op. cit., p. 21 and p. 47:16 17