For her first solo exhibition in Japan, Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens invites the public to take a retrospective look at her work. At Le Forum in Tokyo, she will present a dozen pieces that interrogate our perception and enter into dialogue with the space – hence the title she has chosen for her exhibition, which borrows the street address of Le Forum: “5 Chome 4-1 Ginza, Tokyo”.

Born in Folkestone, United Kingdom in 1956, Ann Veronica Janssens has pursued an experimental approach using simple materials such as plywood, glass and concrete since the late 1970s. In the 1990s, she began to regularly make use of immaterial elements such as light, sound and artificial fog. Based in Brussels, she has a recurring presence on the international scene through exhibitions that feature a range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video and photography, as well as through the sets she has designed for contemporary dance productions.

Responding to an invitation by the curator of Le Forum, Reiko Setsuda, Ann Veronica Janssens will present a selection of emblematic works from her career, including Rose – a pink, seven-pointed star made from intersecting beams of light – and Swings, a swing featuring a thermosensitive seat. The important role that she ascribes to the physical, sensorial and conceptual dimensions of the sites in which she works is reflected in the title of her project for the Foundation’s Tokyo exhibition space. From one work to the next, the light, the time and the atmosphere of Le Forum are subtly modified as the artist unfolds an invisible architecture that lends itself to disorientation and instability, inviting visitors to experience a sensuous and intimate engagement with her works. Whatever their format, these works are characterised by refinement, lightness, transparency and fluidity – by a fundamental immateriality that confronts each visitor with their own perception.

The Fondation d’entreprise Hermès has previously presented Ann Veronica Janssens’s work at La Verrière in Brussels in the exhibition “Philaetchouri”, in 2015 with artist Michel François. Between 2014 and 2016, she also mentored three artists during their residencies at Hermès workshops, as part of the Foundation’s Artists’ Residencies programme.