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“Art is incorruptible, has no limits, is capable of questioning the essence of life and death in a non-hierarchic, intuitive way with unexpected results and detours.”

Name

Anna Jacobi

Profession 

Visual Artist

Website

annajacobi.eu

Where are you from?

Mainz, Germany, actually living at Esslingen

Your style in 3 words?

substantial, peculiar, simple

Your weakness? Your strength?

I have a weakness for cows, chocolate truffles, and black humor. Strength: Open-minded to any creature.

What makes you different?

Like all other representatives of my species, I am the only unique one. Really!

When did you decide to become an artist?

Almost every year.

Do you choose your art form, or does the form choose you?

It is an equal and affectionate relationship.

What do you find most fascinating about your work?

How the power of a certain self-willingness of painting meets a specific site.

A few words about your favorite creation?

Today I may choose my installation ARENA at Theater Lindenhof, a very special institution at Melchingen, quite a small village in the Swabian Jura: starting from finding wooden parts and furniture parts from bulky waste, I created a hybrid form between painting and sculpture, transforming the site into a strange cosmos: a painterly gesture that arises from the peculiarity of the space and occupies it.

What surprised you most about your first art shows?

How much they changed my idea of the art I thought I was making.

Someone else’s work that inspired or inspires you…

Etel Adnan, Ida Kerkovius, Olav Christopher Jenssen

Who would you like to work with someday and why?

With a curious and open-minded stranger from a different culture than mine, like Amna Elhassan (well, I don’t know her in person;)) doing an installation/ painting together in real teamwork. I’d love to learn about culture-specific and individual ways of doing a painting, of thinking about handling a site-specific work, understanding the space, the light, the way of reflecting on art, and maybe working with different aspects of language, too.

“Art is freedom.”

A new project coming up or an idea you want to work on?

I’m working on a series of small peculiar and quite colorful ceramics for a site-specific installation, for a one-room location, that can address and change the character of the place. Besides, I’m doing a stage design for an outdoor-theatre project in 2023 about the relationship between nature and human culture.

Finish the sentence „More important than my career is…“

„…rowing with my own stroke.“

2025: Where are we going?

Always forward but on winding paths.

Do you think about time as an artist?

Yes: Time is passing faster and faster, while I’m slowing down constantly.

When the going gets tough…

…I’m taking a rest in a cowshed in the Bernese Oberland.

Put on your future vision glasses: What direction is our generation moving in, what will our world look like in 50 years?

In 50 years: Less nature, more human designed-sites, wars like ever, people building walls against climate refugees, and a few friendly islands of hope and humor in between.

What would you do if you could change the World?

Find a magic spell to convince all peoples and individuals of a way of life that is beneficial to every living being, even if it means giving up almost all comforts or all of humanity. Better not give me that power!

“substantial,

peculiar,

simple”

What does freedom mean when it comes to art?

Art is incorruptible, has no limits, is capable of questioning the essence of life and death in a non-hierarchic, intuitive way with unexpected results and detours. Art is freedom.