Interview: Ans Joosten
Luca Curci talks with Ans Joosten, during VISIONS – CANVAS INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR 2023, and during HYBRID IDENTITIES – BORDERS ART FAIR held in Venice at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello.

Ans Joosten mentioned that for her creating out of stone is something that has been done for as long as human beings wander on this earth. It developed towards shaping amulets, objects and statues to worship for instance the ‘Venus van Willendorf’ from the ‘Upper Paleolithic’ period towards the Hellenistic period when there was a search to create a certain perfect image of the human embodiment. The propaganda, the stories and the transmission of everyday life through sculptures in stone. Her fascination with human movement, the current conditions, times and the ways we perceive to create and destroy ‘so these times’ influence my ways of creating together with the stone and its being.

Luca Curci – What is art for you?
Ans Joosten – Art=Life. Art means for me development in life. It gives the space to look from another perspective to the world. To share a certain personal perspective and awareness towards the world.

LC – What’s your background? What is the experience that has influenced your work the most?
AJ – The reason I sculpt, is because I have the perception that there is no other possibility and it is part of my life. The things I perceive in my all-day life, and the world around me I reflect within the stone. It is my way of communicating, and I receive the energy to live. From an experimental phase, working in stone I have studied the history of sculpting and techniques to develop my own way of sculpting. From here on I started to teach how to sculpt, which gives me a lot of insights in so many ways.

LC – What issues do you intend to deal with in the future?
AJ – I did not create my best work yet, maybe it is an impossible challenge to manage this in this lifetime. Can I still improve?, how will I continue working and will I keep this freedom of space?

LC – What are the three hashtags essential to define your poetics that you could not give up?
AJ – #sculptureansjoosten #ansjoosten #ansjoostenart

LC – What is the most challenging part about creating your artworks?
AJ – The way to create together with the material entity of the stone. Physically and mentally.

LC – Do you agree with our vision of art and what do you think about the theme of the exhibition?
AJ – I think it is important to show a broad perspective of art, from all over the world. Also, I think there lies a strong relation to the combination of, performance, painting, digital and sculpture.

LC – In which way the artwork presented in our exhibition is connected with the exhibition’s theme?
AJ – The theme of Visions, is connected with my work because I try to create and realize time after time the physical fragility of life that we have to encounter during our lives on this earth within the sculptings. This exposure and perception of our weakness within a human-economical system is something that often will not be healed, or at least not by the physical nursing systems that we get confronted with. The works contain a 24k layer of gold leaf to show protection that we create, a second skin. She is showing the fractures of the many beatings and confrontations that we have to endure during our lives, as well as to protect our loved ones. The selection of works exhibited in Venice is called “Protection? –Protection”; “The sun enters our souls”; “A saviour of lives”; “Protect – Protected – Protection”; “Who needs protection?”; “And how can we protect?”

LC – Do you think ITSLIQUID GROUP can represent an opportunity for artists?
AJ – The opportunity of presenting the work on an international scale and high diversity of visitors is a great opportunity. I hope that it will reflect as well in the result of comments and responses from the visitors.