THRILLERS IN THE MIST

A major survey at Milan art foundation Pirelli Hangar Bicocca shines new light on the sensorially stimulating work of Belgian visual artist Ann Veronica Janssens

- BENOIT LOISEAU

Ann Veronica Janssens has built a career out of thin air. Mist and light are to the Brussels-based artist what stone and marble were to Rodin: raw materials to be sculpted and perfected. ‘I’ve tried to give materiality to certain phenomena that, at first sight, may not seem to have any,’ she tells me over a Zoom call from Milan’s Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, a 15,000 sq m tyre factory-turned-art foundation where she’s installing her largest show to date. Titled ‘Grand Bal’, the exhibition spans four decades of experiments with the sensory and performative nature of space, including a rectangular concave sculpture evoking infinitude, site-specific brick constructions, dizzying optical glass pieces and her celebrated immersive fog installation. ‘It’s the first time I’ll show these works together,’ she says. ‘It’s this exchange that interests me; it’s the exhibition’s true challenge.’