Interview: Anne Avaux
Luca Curci talks with Anne Avaux during the 15th Edition of VENICE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2022, at Palazzo Bembo.

Anne Avaux is a Belgian artist of 43. Her work is about resilience, vibrance and feminity. It makes an echo to her own life, as a divorced mum, as a woman in love, as an involved HR director with a busy life, and as a woman who faced cancer at the age of 35. She loves creating new universes, leading the spectator to his own world and inviting him to dare to see other realities. Through the captures of real moments, architectures, materials, and encounters… we can travel and discover other spaces, and we can take off and put a new look on our daily life. The work is mainly horizontal, like framing in the middle of a scroll of elusive moments. And through this horizontal, the space is divided: cuts and breaks mark out the images, just as cuts and breaks mark out our lives. This universe is deeply feminine: the curves, the vibrancy, the shapes and the voluptuousness can plunge into a certain form of eroticism. Redrawing life, discovering intimacy. The marked colors support a certain fragility, flaws, hollows, and voids… which invite resilience. They show strength, impulse and urge. Photography is a passion. It has accompanied her since she was a child. Her camera is her brush to paint her canvas, to let play the colors of life, the breakings and the complex architecture of emotions.

LC – How did you get into photography? Do you remember why you took your first professional photo?
AA – I started photography at a young age. My father was a photographer and we had a photo lab at home, so I was quickly introduced to it. In 2010 I started to perfect my technique and took my first professional photos with a group of professional photographers. It then more recently, in 2020, that I started to develop a real artistic project.

LC – How important is the editing process in your work? How’s yours?
AA – I never work in the studio. The street, nature, the city, and the people are my working ground… I focus on details, I reinvent reality, and I try to combine colours, shadows and reflections. After a simple digital development, I work with a specialised printer, choosing baryta or watercolour paper according to the subject and the desired colour rendering. The choice of the size and the paper is an important step and I love to do it with my team.

LC – Where do you find your inspiration?
AA – My own life journey, through cancer and other difficulties, has pushed me to feel the vibrancy of each moment, to constantly balance my energy and to welcome emotions as a force. It is these elements that I seek to translate into images.

LC – How do you choose your subjects? Is it a reasoned or an instinctive process?
AA – I like to travel, discover and meet people. As soon as I find myself in this type of context, I know that I will capture images. My eye then catches everything that can translate resilience and femininity, mainly in horizontal and often very colourful shots.

LC – How is being an artist nowadays?
AA – To be an artist today means opening your eyes to the complexity of the world. It means daring to assert a way of seeing the world in a singular way. It also means translating messages, carrying a voice. For me, being an artist means being in touch and in dialogue.

LC – Do you agree with our vision of art and what do you think about the theme of the exhibition?
AA – Questioning our unconscious parts, our deep identities, is essential in a world where individuality is often emphasised. However, I believe that our individualities only live through communities. By inviting very different artists to exhibit together around these issues, perhaps this can also question our way of thinking about the collective.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
AA – Itsliquid invites artists to explore the complexity of the world by focusing on the relationship between body and space. In my work, part of my photo series explores the representation of women on walls: how do these representations occupy public space? What message do they deliver? And how can we express, through other more abstract images, the power of emotions and femininity? In this sense, the theme of the exhibition pushes me to deepen my work.

LC – What do you think about the organization of our event?
AA – ITSLIQUID permits a very wide range of different artists to meet each other. It’s a very open platform with multicultural exchanges, in multicultural cities.

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
AA – Of course, if ITSLIQUID Group succeeds in publicising an artist, putting him or her in touch with a collector, buyer or gallery owner, if the artist gains recognition as a result, ITSLIQUID Group becomes a great partner!