"I don't set myself any limits"

When we arrive in Verlorenkost on one of those endlessly sunny afternoons – of which there are plenty during this sweltering summer – Sarah Mandres is already expecting us. Along with around 40 other artists, this artist from Esch also has her studio here, in the former gendarmerie barracks, which is now used by the Association des Artistes Plasticiens du Luxembourg.

It is quite small, but that doesn't stop canvases, wooden panels, tools, plaster moulds and objects that might one day become art or part of an installation from piling up. A little later, we also visit the group exhibition Common Ground in the Rotondes, just a stone's throw away, where Mandres is exhibiting her installation Baby Boom Bumm – which has been the subject of much discussion – as part of the sixth edition of the Triennale Jeune Création Luxembourg et Grande Région.

"I simply can't live without art. I've been making art ever since I was very young, " the 38-year-old tells us right at the start of the conversation. Incidentally, we had already interviewed her four years ago – at the time, on the occasion of an exhibition by the artists' collective Cueva.