ART-PRESENTATION: Ann Veronica Janssens-Contemporary Counterpoint

Ann Veronica Janssens bases her work on the act of perception, developing an experimental research through the prism of physical phenomena such as light, color, sound, or mist. Using stripped-down gestures, the artist activates “undefined zones” between blindness and revelation. These gestures seek to render manifest the indefinable and transitory nature of the very material of reality. Duration, space, and movement determine their primordial conditions.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Musée de l’Orangerie Archive

The organisation of space and the diffusion of light, radiant colr, stroboscopic impulses, artificial mists and reflective or translucent surfaces all serve to reveal the instability of our perception of time and space. Properties of materials (gloss, lightness, transparency, fluidity) and physical phenomena (reflection, refraction, perspective, balance, waves) are rigorously examined here for their ability to destabilise the very concept of materiality. In her desire to create a dialogue with Claude Monet’s work “Water Lilies”, Ann Veronica Janssens created “Contemporary Counterpoint” a specific luminous immersive environment for Musée de l’Orangerie. “I am interested in what eludes me, not in order to prevent it escaping but, on the contrary, to experiment with the “ungraspable”. There are few objects in my work. Engaged gestures and the loss of control that are fully assumed and proposed as an active experience: my way of proceeding consists of such loss of control, the absence of overbearing materiality, the attempt to escape from the tyranny of objects“. Ann Veronica Janssens mainly does site-specific works. She is neither sculptor nor architect. Taking a specific space as her starting point, she adds forms and volumes to the existing architecture. For this, she sets out discretely: she submits herself to the given space, to the given architectural forms. Often she chooses for unexpected, unobvious places like a stairway, a ceiling or a window ledge. Her interventions bring the specific qualities of an environment to light. She sets out signposts, intended to let viewers define themselves against reality. In what way does our point of view determine our perception? How does the viewer relate vis-à-vis a specific place? Originally she worked chiefly with industrial materials – concrete, wood and glass – and primary forms. Since 1990 her work increasingly displays a more immaterial character: light, sound and fog instead of rough building materials. These works lead to a drastic total-experience that completely changes our perception of the space.

Info: Musée de l’Orangerie, Jardin des Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, Paris, Duration: 23/1-29/4/19, Days & Hours: Mon & Wed-Sun 9:00-18:00, www.musee-orangerie.fr