Ann Veronica Janssens

Biographie

Ann Veronica Janssens was born in Folkestone, Great Britain in 1956. The artist is occupied with incidental manifestations of light and movement phenomena, which she captures in videos, photographs, and installations. When viewing her works, which are comparable to lab situations, visitors are referred back to the experiment, the physical phenomenon, but also to the process of perception, one’s own interaction in space. Janssens has had numerous solo exhibitions, for example, at MuHKA, Antwerp (1997), the Neuen Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Kunstverein München (2001), Kunsthalle Bern, and CCA, San Francisco (2003), and Wiels in Brussels (2009). She participated in the 5th Istanbul Biennial (1997), Manifesta 8 (2010), and the Sydney Biennial (1998, 2012). Together with Michel Francois she represented the Belgian pavilion at the 48th Venice Biennial (1999). The artist lives and works in Brussels.

Additional biography

The most important material in Ann Veronica Janssens’ art is actually immaterial—light. She uses various light sources and light-emitting substances and introduces fog or transparent fluids and colors to conjure up reflections and optical illusions. Her works are balanced on the edges of space and perception, on the intersection of opacity and transparency they fathom out the differences between reality and fiction. The artist’s aim is to offer a heightened sensory perception of reality—or of multiple realities. (Doris Leutgeb)