Introduction

The Fondation d'entreprise Hermes is pleased to present 5 Chome 4-1 Ginza, Tokyo, the first solo exhibition in Japan of Ann Veronica Janssens (b.1956, Folkestone, UK). She is a Brussels-based Belgian artist who is active in the international art scene. Since the late 1970s, Janssens has consistently pursued experimental endeavours, employing simple materials like plywood, glass, and concrete, and since around 1990s, also incorporating elements such as light, sound, and artificial haze. Her work spans a wide range of media, including sculpture, installation, video, photography, and stage design for contemporary dance performances.

While sharing common interests with artistic movements such as Minimalism, which uses industrial materials and questions the inherent nature of the exhibition space, as well as Light and Space, which offers a scientific examination of perceptual phenomena such as light, volume, and scale, Janssens' work manifests in the form of subtle, understated interventions. Her explorations consistently serve to stimulate our physical perceptions of the world, and the fragile and ambiguous realms of cognition within it, without imposing a fixed or immediately graspable form upon them. Her work also extends to interdisciplinary dialogue, including the establishment of the "Brain Space Laboratory" (co-founded with Nathalie Ergino in 2009), a research platform that creates a bridge between artistic experimentation and scientific study, exploring how the brain perceives, navigates, and reacts to spatial and physical phenomena.

Janssens, in describing her approach, states that she seeks to find her work "amidst the loss of control, the absence of authoritarian materiality, and the attempt to escape the tyranny of objects."