born in 1958 in Antwerp, is
a graduate of the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Over the past 40 years, he has produced works as a visual artist, theatre artist and author.
VISUAL ARTIST
Influenced by research carried out by the entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915), he became fascinated by the world of insects and other creatures at a very young age. In the late 1970s, while studying, he explored ways of extending his research to the domain of the human body. His own performances and actions, from 1976 to the present, have been essential to his artistic journey. Jan Fabre’s language involves a variety of materials and
is situated in a world of his own, populated by bodies
in balance between the opposites that de ne natural existence. Metamorphosis is a key concept in any approach to Jan Fabre’s body of thought, in which human and animal lives are in constant interaction. He unfolds his universe through his author’s texts and nocturnal notes, published in the volumes of his Night diary.
He is known for solo exhibitions such as "Homo Faber" (KMSKA, Antwerp, 2006), "Hortus / Corpus" (Kröller- Müller Museum, Otterlo, 2011) and "Stigmata. Actions and Performances, 1976–2013" (MAXXI, Rome, 2013; M HKA, Antwerp, 2015; MAC, Lyon, 2016). He was the first living artist to present a large-scale exhibition at the Louvre, Paris ("L’ange de la métamorphose, 2008").
Jan Fabre has created a major exhibition at The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg ("Knight of Despair / Warrior of Beauty, 2016- 2017"). As a collateral event
of the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Jan Fabre’s works in glass and bone are presented in the Abbey of San Gregorio ("Glass and Bone Sculptures 1977 – 2017, Venice"). Jan Fabre’s work in the visual arts is coordinated by Angelos.
THEATRE ARTIST
In the late 1970s, the young Jan Fabre caused a furore as a performance artist. In 1982, the work "This is theatre like it was to be expected and fore- seen" placed a virtual bomb under the seat of the theatre establishment of the day. This was confirmed two years later with "The power of theatrical madness" commissioned for the Venice Biennale. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theatre by introducing the concept of ‘real-time performance’ and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance.
Chaos and discipline, repetition and madness, metamorphosis and the anonymous are all indispensible ingredients in Fabre’s theatre. Alongside age-old rituals
and philosophical questions, Fabre also deals with such themes as violence, lust, beauty and erotica. The body in all its forms has been the subject of his investigations since the early 1980s.
AUTHOR
Fabre’s plays were written with the aim of producing them on stage. In the early 1970s, Jan Fabre wrote to give shape to his then already intense imaginative world. These are plays, which only came into the public domain many years later, when they were staged by the author himself. Other plays were created in the course
of rehearsals on the basis of improvisation with the actors. Nowadays Fabre’s theatre texts are staged around the world.
Jan Fabre’s literary work illustrates his thinking and reflections on visual arts
and theatre: theatre as an
all embracing work of art in which the word is given a well-considered functional place next to such parameters as dance, music, opera, performance elements and improvisation. The austerity with which Fabre uses the medium of the word forces him to make theatre in an innovative way.
Fabre’s published "Night diaries" are bringing together all different parts of his artistic life with his very personal thoughts of sleepless nights and thus unfolding the Fabre universe.
11.04.2017
