Portrait/Interview: Ion Ander Beloki
ja! Studio
Ion Ander designs and creates beautiful and intriguing window displays for a number of clients in Spain. He shares with us his inspirations and key influences on his work. Interview by Anna Stewart.
Your work at ja! studio takes the form of intriguing visual displays in shop windows and your work has been published internationally. What’s your approach when thinking about a window, a display?
My approach starts by understanding the brief and the project´s concept itself.
I believe that my windows are about more than just selling a product. I like to create images that stop people in their tracks, make them look, and intrigue them. In some cases I design and produce from scratch whilst with others, I just improvise by decontextualizing daily objects, endowing them with new meaning. I quite like to experiment and create compositions with materials and objects from my daily life. I find it enjoyable and the final picture is always fresh and has a special energy. My windows dispense with superfluous elements and only take on those which best describe the concept, creating a dialogue between the shop
and the customer, month by month.
Window dressing is one of the oldest techniques of wooing customers, and a celebrated art form in itself. How did you enter the world of visual installations?
It really was coincidental. It was a time when I wasn´t sure about what to do career-wise and one day I came across a magazine which had an article about window dressing and, at that time, not much was known about the subject. The idea of working creatively attracted me,
so I decided to move to Barcelona and undertake studies in graphic design and window dressing. Two years later, after studying and working as an assistant with various window dressers in Barcelona, I decided to set up on my own. I created ja! studio, offering my services as a window dresser to independent shops and companies.
How is your work influenced by where you grew up in the Basque region of Spain?
And where you live now, in London?
I try to mix elements of the Basque culture in my work, which is, in the end, closest to me.
The Basque Country has an enormous contemporary art background connected with our language, culture and landscape. The work of artists such as Oteiza and Chillida, amongst others, has been greatly inspiring to me.
On the other hand, I split my time between London and Spain. London seems to me a place that keeps you awake and constantly stimulated, so working and living in different places gives me the possibility to feel enriched, networked and connected to what is happening now.
We were introduced by the Spanish product designer Oscar Diaz.
Do you collaborate with other designers?
And if so, how important is this to your practice?
Collaboration is important and necessary and gives another perspective to the project.
In fact, my studio is based on collaborations supported by people from other areas…
In addition, it gives me the opportunity to meet different people and this enriches my work
and has a direct influence on it.
