EX­hi­Bi­tion

ANN VERONICA JANSSENS: 5 CHOME 4-1 GINZA, TOKYO

“5 Chome 4-1 Ginza, Tokyo” is the first solo exhibition in Japan by the Brussels-based artist Ann Veronica Janssens. Born in 1956, Janssens started out working with simple materials like plywood, glass, and concrete before going on to incorporate elements such as light, sound, and artificial haze in her experimental practice. This compact survey focuses on Janssens’s activities since the 1990s. The use of the building’s address as the exhibition title demonstrates Janssens’s physical, sensory, and conceptual approach to the site. Among the pieces on view will be Rose (2007/26), which treats diffused light as a material; Untitled (blue glitter) (2015/26), which captures the traces of a fleeting moment; and Donut (2026), a new production featuring the artist’s voice. These works challenge the inherent nature of the space, manipulating time, light, and atmosphere to produce zones of physical instability and perceptual disorientation where it almost seems possible to escape what the artist calls the “tyranny of objects.”

GINZA MAISON HERMÈS LE FORUM

Located on the eighth and ninth floors of the Ginza Maison Hermès building, Le Forum invites Japanese and international artists to create site-specific installations that respond to Renzo Piano’s iconic crystalline architecture. The exhibition program has featured fantastical marble sculptures by Yutaka Sone, an immersive fog installation by Fujiko Nakaya, and a mini retrospective for Argentinean artist Julio Le Parc.

Le Forum is an initiative of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès. Founded in Paris in 2008, the Fondation is a nonprofit organization that supports projects related to art, the transmission of traditional artisanal techniques, environmental issues, and education.