[Hermès Foundation] Anne Veronica Janssen “Tokyo, Ginza 5-4-1” Exhibition

Belgian artist Anne Veronika Jansen, based in Brussels and active internationally, will hold her first solo exhibition in Japan. It will be held at Maison Hermès Le Forum in Ginza from September 11th (Friday).

The Hermès Foundation is pleased to present the first solo exhibition in Japan of Anne Veronika Jansen (born 1956 in Folkestone, England), a Belgian artist based in Brussels who is active internationally, titled "Tokyo, Ginza 5-4-1". Jansen's work, which spans a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, video, photography, and contemporary dance stage design, has always been experimental, starting in the late 1970s with simple materials such as plywood, glass, and concrete, and from around 1990 with the use of light, sound, and artificial mist.

While sharing similarities with artistic movements such as minimalism, which uses industrial materials and questions the uniqueness of exhibition spaces, and light and space, which scientifically examines space and light, Jansen's work appears before us in an extremely understated form. His exploration consistently stimulates the precarious and ambiguous realms of bodily perception of the world and the cognition within it, emerging without imposing fixed forms or directly graspable shapes.

Her work also extends to interdisciplinary dialogue and research, such as the establishment of the "Brain Space Laboratory" (co-founded with Natalie Elzino in 2009), a project in which artists and scientists collaborate to explore the relationship between space, time, body, and brain.

This exhibition consists of a series of works by Jansen that have been ongoing since the 1990s. The choice of the address of Maison Hermès Le Forum in Ginza as the title strongly demonstrates Jansen's physical, sensory, and conceptual approach to place. The works, which are dedicated to a specific address and conceived from a physical observation of that space, include more than ten pieces such as "Rose," which treats diffused light as a material; "Untitled (blue glitter)," a blue glitter that remembers the traces of a moment; "Swings," a swing with a seat covered in heat-reactive film; and the new work "Donut," which uses his own voice as a medium. These works shake the inherent nature of the place, manipulate time, light, and air, create openings, generate airflow, and create an invisible architecture that can be called a buffer zone for the senses.

Jansen says that he finds his work in "this attempt to escape the loss of control, the absence of authoritarian materiality, and the tyranny of objects." Along with the transcendent sense emanating from his works, which possess luster, lightness, transparency, and fluidity within their precision, we experience the illusion of dispersing and permeating space.

In 2015, Anne Veronica Jansen and Michel François held the "Philaetchouri" exhibition at La Verrière, the Hermès Foundation's art space in Brussels. Furthermore, as part of the artist residency program, Anne mentored three artists invited to Hermès workshops from 2014 to 2016.
*Pascal Rousseau, "Light Games," *art press No. 299*, February 2004.

Ann Veronica Janssens
Born in Folkestone, England in 1956, and based in Brussels, Belgium, she has been creating works since the 1970s that focus on the viewer's experience of space. Her site-specific installations, themed on reflection, luminosity, and transparency, are created using elusive elements such as light, artificial haze, and sound, and simple materials that function only as means or mediators. They function as devices for experiencing the transience of "this moment," subjective perception of space and time, and their constant shifts. In her work, the transformation of "material" through "immaterial" gives the viewer a loss of direction and a sense of instability, eventually prompting a shift in that sensation from the physical to the psychological realm. Through their own movements, dialogue with others, awareness of the situation created by the artist, and awareness of the architecture and space activated through that situation, viewers actively participate in a unique experience.

Exhibition official website

Ann Veronica Jansen "Tokyo, Ginza 5-4-1" Exhibition

■Period: September 11, 2026 (Friday) – January 11, 2027 (Monday/holiday)
■Opening hours: 11:00 – 19:00
■Closed days: Wednesdays, New Year holidays *Closed days are the same as Ginza Maison Hermès. However, these are subject to change.
■Admission Fee: Free ■Venue: Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum, 8th & 9th Floors, Ginza Maison Hermès, 5-4-1 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo ■Organizer: Hermès Foundation ■Cooperation: Esther Schipper
■URL: https://www.hermes.com/jp/ja/content/401713-mgeditopagearticleforumf74/