Ana Torfs

The tension between text and image plays a central role in Ana Torfs' work, and with it all the related processes of visualisation and translation, such as perception, interpretation, projection, deception, resonance, encryption, and manipulation. Existing texts are often used as a starting point, for example the conversation books of a famous composer turned deaf in Zyklus von Kleinigkeiten (Cycle of Trifles, 1998), the records of a trial in Anatomy (2006), a play by Maurice Maeterlinck in The Intruder (2004) or the dialogues of Roberto Rossellini's film Viaggio in Italia in Displacement (2009). The media that serve to convey Torfs' subjects are multifaceted reproductive techniques, ranging from slide installation, film, video and photographic series to xerography and silkscreen.
Ana Torfs (born 1963) lives and works in Brussels. She studied communication science at the University of Leuven (1981-1986) and film and video at the Sint-Lukas University College of Art and Design, Brussels (1986-1990). Solo shows of Torfs' work include exhibitions at Generali Foundation in Vienna (2010), at K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf (2010), at Sprengel Museum in Hannover (2008), at argos centre for art and media in Brussels (2007), at daadgalerie, Berlin (2006), at Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst in Bremen (2006), and at Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (2000). She has also developed a web project for Dia Art Foundation in New York (2004).