ANNINA ROESCHEISEN : A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST TO WATCH
Annina Roescheisen is a half German half Slovenian multimedia artist based in Paris since 2009 ; she is specialized in Medieval art and she used to work for a little while for Sotheby’s in Munich before being full time dedicated to photography, films, sculptures, drawings, writings and human causes, especially to children. I met her last Saturday at her Parisian studio in 17th arrondissement and we naturally started talking about our common friend and visual artist Fawad Khan who used to sublet his Brooklyn apartment to her when she visited the big apple for work from times to times… At the moment, she is living between Paris and NYC ; NYC is the place where she is creating and writing whereas Paris is where she produces her artwork. She is exhibiting her last video piece “What are you fishing for?” at the 56th International Venice Biennale in a few days and she is very excited about it : “It will be my first time attending the official opening as a featured artist so I will be going with the flow, it’s a big step for me! I hope I will be meeting up there with some friends : Xavier Veilhan and his studio team, some NY friends and my friend the galerist Imane Fares. I still don’t realize I am part of this international exhibition. It’s completely surrealistic…”. She added : “Having good supportive friends is very important when you enroll yourself in an artistic venture as you can easily feel lonely… It is essential to open yourself to what life is for real, accept failures and be patient, and of course, stop judging and labelling as good and bad things which are around you.” If you closely look at her website, you will notice she has a tab entitled “HUMANITY” where she features all of her actions towards human causes. She was recently selected by a French charity, L’Assiette Gourm’Hand, to take part in the jury process, under the patronage of the President of the Republic François Hollande, of a food experience designed by several groups of developmentally disabled people alongside big French Chefs next November. This human creature is a bottomless pit of generosity and creativity ; it is hauntingly beautiful. At the end of our talk from German painters to autism, she invited me to watch her selected video for the Venice Biennale in a darker and smaller space. The setting was perfect ; she built a TV frame made of birchwood to add a little something to her eight-minute narrative story. The music created by The Shoes’s band member Benjamin Lebeau as a background noise fits it so well. It helps you plunge in the water with this young pale girl all in white -played by the artist herself-, clean yourself from fears and thoughts and make peace with all around you for a bit. It feels so good to be stranded in the present time at this space full of good vibrations and energy. When going back to the main space, she handed me a little rainbow-colored book entitled LILLIE recommending me to read it on the train whenever I feel like it (Of course I read it right after leaving her). LILLIE is her first published book and I believe she is telling her own story through a little girl who is searching for peace of mind, facing both interior and exterior barriers… Welcome home, Annina! And thank you for being true to yourself.