L’Aire d’un Souffle
Ann Veronica Janssens
Michel François
10 january > 10 june 2024
This common and specific work takes the form of a long fence constructed on a floor of concrete blocks. The floor is left in its raw state, as is the aluminium fence, the cut-outs of which are the same size as each concrete block. A large hole opens up in the upper part of the fence, suggesting the effect of a gust of wind that has opened up a passage through its mesh.
L'aire d'un souffle is first and foremost a sculpture in line with the previous work of both artists. The installation takes the form of a perforated visual barrier, allowing us to see through and beyond... A grid for observing the surrounding urban landscape, a kind of insurmountable obstacle, a boundary that can be understood in many ways. This fence is not open to the passage of people but to our gaze, symbolically pierced by a gust whose origin can also be subject to multiple interpretations.
The fence is also perched on a territory of its own, inviting the public to climb and thus change their point of view. The pattern of the concrete elevation lifted from the ground of the Esplanade recalls the grid of the fence in a horizontal unfolding, interrupted by a cutoff designed to establish a line of communication between both elements of the installation. The area thus defined becomes a space in itself, a field of action where the public can move around, experiment and interact.
The grid has long played a fundamental role in Western art as a model for organising space. But it was especially in the 20th century that it became an aesthetic form in its own right. Today it is used in a variety of ways: as a textile weave, a graphic grid, a computer matrix, a documentary device, etc. The grid continues to appear as a complex and ambiguous structure that evokes the rational order of science while opening up unexpected spaces towards reality, imagination, intuition and creativity.
This sculpture, set in the symbolic location of the Solidarnosc Esplanade of the European Parliament, also speaks of the state of the world, underlining the territorial fractures, the separation of blocs and the multiplication of borders. It points them out and opposes them in a "breath", in an openness to the possible free circulation of beings and meaning, to the maintenance of a flow and the energy of a necessary "aeration".
L'aire d'un souffle delineates a field open to all these possible interpretations, a land rich with a plurality of meanings and escaping any overly literal approach.
This work also affirms that where obstacles are erected, where confinement threatens, good artists always have escape plans to offer us.
Ann Veronica Janssens
Born in 1956 in Folkstone (United Kingdom), she lives and works in Brussels (Belgium).
Since the late 1970s, Ann Veronica Janssens has been developing experimental work that emphasizes in situ installations and the use of very simple or intangible materials, such as light, sound or artificial fog. The observer is confronted with the notion of the ‘elusive’ and an ephemeral experience in which they go beyond the threshold of clear, controlled vision. One experiences a loss of control, instability and fragility, be it visual, physical, temporal or psychological.
![Ann Veronica Janssens 2012 L'ODRRE N'A PAS D'IPMROTNCAE [odrre is umniprotnat]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6569ad3e293d053a80965cf3/f86163e1-585d-4a27-aa4f-33b2d303595b/Ann+Veronica+Janssens+2012+L%27ODRRE+N%27A+PAS+D%27IPMROTNCAE+%5Bodrre+is+umniprotnat%5D++.jpeg)
The artist also participated in major international exhibitions, including the Sharjah Biennale 14 (2019); the Manifest 10, Saint Petersburg (2014); the Sydney Biennale (1998 and 2012); the Lyon Biennale (2005); and São Paulo Biennale (1994) – as well as group exhibitions in institutions such as the Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna; the SMAK in Ghent; the Grand Palais in Paris; the Punta della Dogana in Venice (2019); the Hayward Gallery in London (2018); the Mudam in Luxembourg, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Buenos Aires (2015); the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014); the Juan Miró Foundation in Barcelona (2013).
In 1999, she represented Belgium with Michel François at the 48th Venice Biennale.
Ann Veronica Janssens’ work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at internationally renowned institutions, including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk (2020); the South London Gallery (2020); the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (2019); the Baltimore Museum of Art, the De Pont Museum in Tilburg, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art in Helsinki (2018); the Institute of Contemporary Art – Villeurbanne/ Rhône-Alpes (2017); the Nasher Sculpture Centre in Dallas (2016); the Wellcome Collection in London (2015); the Kunsthalle Münster, the CRAC Alsace – Rhine Centre for Contemporary Art in Altkirch (2011); the WIELS in Brussels, the Contemporary Art Space of Castellón (2009); the Morsbroich Museum in Leverkusen (2007); the Kunsthalle Bern; the Musée d'Orsay in Paris; the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco (2003); the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin (2001).
Michel François
Born in 1956 in Sint-Truiden (Belgium), he lives and works in Brussels (Belgium).
Through sculpture, photography, video and installations, Michel François seizes, challenges and questions a reality that he has long been accustomed to exploring as a nomad. From reality, Michel François extracts, reframes and repositions fragments, zooms in on situations, freezes moments which, when brought to light, convey the subjectivity of the individual, establish their singularity and demonstrate how they cannot be reduced to uniform patterns and models.
He has also participated in numerous important group exhibitions, namely at the Centre Pompidou-Metz; the Taipei Fine Arts Museum; the documenta IX; the Mamco in Geneva; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; the Casino and the Mudam in Luxembourg; as well as in different biennales, such as the ones in Istanbul, Seoul and Johannesburg.
In 1999, he represented Belgium with Ann Veronica Janssens at the 48th Venice Biennale.
His work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions, including the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham; the CRAC in Sète; the CCC in Tours; the IAC in Villeurbanne, the SMAK in Ghent, the MACS in Grand Hornu, the De Pont Museum in Tilburg; the CCA in Kitakyushu; the Vox in Montreal; the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon; the Kunstverein in Münster; the Kunsthalle Bern; the Haus der Kunst in Munich; the Witte de With in Rotterdam; the Miró Foundation in Barcelona; the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
