Q: Hi Ana, first of all, we would like know more about you. Tell us who is Ana Schaub, tell us something about your life and your childhood in your country.
A: Biographically I was born in Croatia, Zagreb in 1983. In a pursuit of becoming an artist I finished Fine Art Academy in Zagreb, on the department of Sculpture in 2007. During my studies I spend a semester in the States, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and I lived in France, Metz in 2005,2006. At this moment I am enrolled in a graduate study of Video at Fine Art Academy in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
My art is greatly formed by my childhood experiences, places I’ve been, places I grew up and dreamt of. Being Croatian is as important to me as having all borders to the world open, experiencing other languages, worlds, states of mind. A childlike element is quite visible in my work, with interactivity and humor.

Q: What is art for you?
A: Art is an amazing channel of communication. For artists it is a way to express, explore and exert them selves, and for viewers it is a reason to see, interact, think. The more diverse, and turbulent art is, the more it has a purpose in society.

Q: Could you share some of your philosophy about art and artistic creation?
A: For me personally creating art is a tool of expression, as much as a reason to explore and create something for someone else to inhale. Art is life. It is not only something sublime, it is also ugly, dirty, dangerous and corrupt, and above anything else real.

Q: Have you always been interested in arts? When did you discover that art would be an important part of your life?
A: I always wanted to be an artist, but my USA experience showed me what it meant to be one.


Q: How did you get started in the art world?
A: I got started the classical way. I enrolled in Fine Art Academy in Zagreb (the most respected art college in Croatia), and as an 18 year old thought my life’s purpose was done, ha ha ha . Unfortunately it wasn’t and on the department of Sculpture I started dreaming of doing something more contemporary and interdisciplinary. I was dreaming of performance, video, drawings in combination with sculpture, paintings, photography, video games… On my traditional Academy, that wasn’t possible. I got a break with the student exchange program in USA, where I was able to make art in a way I always wanted to. Later it was France, Slovenia, but my first performances and installations happened in the States.

Q: Your artworks on meseon are paintings and video-art, Why do you choose it as a means of expression?
A: Paintings, video, animation, sculpture, these medias are all in a function of serving a larger media called Installation. All medias must interact in order to become a large scale work which includes the most of reality and spectacle as possible. The installation must be interdisciplinary, interactive, speak and provoke audience to act. I guess I am still approaching that ideal Installation. Works I have done so far are Little Paradise installations, Toys installation, and several others in between. They are all large scale and include a series of different Medias.

Q: What concept would you like to show to your viewers? What would you like say with your artworks?
A: I don’t have a precise message hidden in my works, I usually try to keep each one open, or more in a form of a question. For instance Little Paradise is my own version of media illusion, perfect kitschy world of palm trees, beaches and my family. I am happy to hear everyone else’s comment, discussion concerning my works, and would be happy to hear critique or other opinion.


Q: How has society influenced your art? What are the social implications of your art?
A: Each work deals with society, but instead of making a sociology survey, each work has a form of a question, or a possible answer waiting to be approved or dismissed. Little Paradise deals with media illusions, and the fact that Medias implement all of us with their version of wishes, which can be fulfilled by buying and buying. Toys installation deals with male obsession with guns, and heroism, which is infantile and goes back to superheroes and comics. It ends up in the military, wars, arm robberies and all possible violent things.
The works do not imply there is an answer, they just offer a possible question, or idea, toward which viewers can react.

Q: Discuss one of your pieces. What were you thinking when you created it?
A: Well as I said, Little Paradise deals with media illusions. I wanted to create my own media illusion, my own version of happiness. I also wanted to put all of my stranded family members on one place and make them happy. It is an infantile desire, and the work fulfilled it.

Q: What was your most important exhibition? Could you share that experience?
A: My most important exhibition was ‘Toys’ in the Student centre Gallery in Zagreb. It was interesting to see my work put up as it was supposed to, since, and see people react to it.

Q: What are the most important artists that are influence in your life and your works? why?
A: I could say my works were influenced by a series of artist I never actually met, but their works speak to me quite vividly. On one hand it is Louise Bourgeois (with her obsessive private world I can relate to), and Marina Abramović (when it comes to performance). There are other more humorous artists, like Pippilotti Rist, Maurizio Catellan, Jeff Koons and Andrei Molodkin as well as the whole Pop art movement. I can relate to their autobiographical, private universe since my works are very private. On the other hand I can relate to humor, political comments, and banal subjects in art.



Q: Could you talk about the procedures that you use in your artworks? Preparation, development and finishing…
A: Making each installation takes about a year, it includes a lot of preparations, exploration of the subject and actual work. Also that time frame opens a possibility for the work to grow, and become more complex.

Q: What do you feel when you are finished with an artwork?
A: I feel a mix of fulfillment and vacuum.

Q: Do you have some challenge or goal which you are pursuing?
A: I imagine a perfect Installation, large, interdisciplinary, interactive.

Q: Some quick questions:
Tell us an artist: Nan Goldin – because the intimacy of her photos makes you cry
Tell us a city: New York – a place to be
Tell us a dream: 45 years old, living and working on the 25 floor of a multimillion city, exposing installations in big museums and looking at the world from up there.

Q: Could you tell us something about you are currently working?
A: I am making an internet installation. It will be a combination of videos and animations, dealing with the theme of Super heroes. People will be able to come to the site, choose their own hero, video and make their own comic book story. The animations and videos will be possible to combine, and to upload new ones.


Q: Have you got some anecdote that you wish share with meseon community?
A: When I was on the Academy I made a 2m sculpture out of wood, an ostrich. It was made from different pieces of wood, so the base, the legs and the body of the bird were different pieces. It was 250kg heavy. Every time I had to put the body on the legs, and on the base (to measure) I needed 5 people to do it. And I had to measure everything 5 times. By the time my sculpture was finished, all the guys on Sculpture Department were hiding when they saw me pass by.

Q: For the end, tell us, why do you create art?
A: It fulfills me and I can not escape a need to do it. Also it makes a complex communication between me and the world, which is irreplaceable.

Thanks a lot for your time Ana. Has been a pleasure know more about you and your work.