Ann Veronica Janssens Swings, 2000-2023

Suspended from the ceiling swings sway in the exhibition space. The visitor’s body plays a key role, as viewers are invited to use these devices—usually associated with a playful dimension and designed for the outdoors—in a different setting that can disorientate the exhibition experience.

As dissonant elements in an enclosed space, the swings become an expedient for visitors to perceive their own movement and the air shift caused by their swaying motion. The seats are covered with a heat-reactive film that changes color upon contact with the human body, temporarily altering the appearance of the installation and leaving an ephemeral trace of the person who sat on it.

Swings explores the fine line between interior and exterior space, bringing into play the perceptual coordinates of the visitors, who find themselves in an unusual position: that of observer and at the same time object of observation.