Jan Fabre: An artist in society is like a street animal. Jan Fabre as the Knight of Beauty Jan Fabre paintings

(English) Jan Fabre, R. 1958) is a contemporary Belgian artist, sculptor and director. His works were exhibited at the Venice Biennales 1984, 1990, 2003 and documenta 1987, 1992.

Early biography

Jan Fabre born in 1958 in Antwerp, Belgium. His grandfather was the famous entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre (1823-1915). In the 70s he graduated from the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and at the same time began writing his first scripts for the theater and creating his first works. In 1977, he “renamed” the street on which he lived as Jan Fabre Street, and installed a sign near his house “Jan Fabre Lives and Works Here.” He painted the most notable series of paintings of this period with his own blood ( "My body, my blood, my landscape", 1978), organizing a performance of the same name from the very process of creation. The following year, the artist again attracted the attention of the general public with the performance “Money”. Fabre collected paper banknotes from visitors, after which he began to crumple them, cut them, walk on them with his feet, etc. At the end of the performance, he burned the bills and wrote the word “Money” using the ashes. Soon, an installation of the same name appeared, made from real money. Also in 1978, Jan Fabre created his first sculpture entitled “I, the Dreamer” (Nid. Ik, aan het dromen). this work is a sculpture of a scientist with a microscope. The “legs” of the scientist and the table are made of meat.

Bic-art

Jan Fabre is also known for his works, in which he used ballpoint pens produced by the Bic company. These pens were considered the most common, and Fabre himself commented on his choice: “it was cheap and convenient. I could take them anywhere and steal them anywhere.” The very idea of ​​using Bic ballpoint pens is not new and the term Bic-Art is used not only in relation to the works of Jan Fabre, but within this “genre” the Belgian artist also managed to offer several original solutions.

In the early 80s, Jan Fabre organized several performances, conventionally united in the series “Ilad of the Bic Art” (Ilad of Bic Art). Ilad here is an anonym of the Dali surname. Perhaps the most notable performance here can be considered “Ilad of the Bic Art, the Bic Art Room” (Ilad of the Bic Art, the Bic Art Room). For three days and three nights, Fabre locked himself in a room where everything was white (including all the dishes and clothes of the artist himself), and he only had Bic pens. In 1990, Fabre presented his new project “Tivoli”. The artist painted an entire mansion using only ballpoint pens.

Performances and performances

Jan Fabre often turns to theater in his work. His first significant production was called “This is the theater as expected and as foreseen” (1982). For the 1984 Venice Biennale, he prepared the play “The Power of Theatrical Stupidity,” during which the actors had to beat each other and themselves. In 1986, Jan Fabre founded the art group Troubleyn, dedicated to theatrical performances. Fabre himself calls this project a performance laboratory of the 21st century.

In 2015, Jan Fabre presented his grandiose production to the audience "Mount Olympus"(“Mount Olympus”). Official slogan: “To glorify the cult of tragedy, a 24 hour performance.” The action lasted 24 hours and involved 27 artists from the Troubleyn group. The play/performance was well received by the public and was repeated in Antwerp in 2016 (from January 30 to 31) (the performance was broadcast live by the French TV channel CultureBox). In addition, "Mount Olympus" was shown in many European countries and Israel.

Sculptures

Jan Fabre began creating his first sculptures back in the 80s. From a conceptual point of view, there are three main themes characteristic of Fabre the sculptor: the world of the insect, the human body and the strategy of war.

In 2002, Fabre created a series of works called "Sky of Delight"(Heaven of Delight). Using almost one and a half million elytra of Thai beetles, the artist painted the ceiling and central chandelier in the Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace in Brussels. This may be a reference to Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The work was commissioned by Queen Paola of Belgium.

Jan Fabre created a number of sculptures, the conceptual meaning of which can be debated. In addition, many of them were created in several copies and located in different places, each time acquiring some new meaning due to the external environment. For example, "Man who measures the clouds" first appeared in Ghent in 1998. In the same year, the same sculpture was installed at the Brussels airport, and in 2004 in Antwerp, the artist’s hometown.

In 2008, the Louvre hosted an exhibition under the general title "Jan Fabre at the Louvre: Angel of Metamorphosis"(Jan Fabre at the Louvre: The Angel of Metamorphosis). Fabre's "foreign" elements were introduced into the museum space. His works were placed alongside the classic works of past masters and, in a sense, complemented reality, introducing elements of chaos and new semantic models accessible to interpretation. In 2016-2017 similar project Jan Fabre organized jointly with the Hermitage ( "Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty"). Fabre's works in the genre of taxidermy were received ambiguously by the public. The scandal was caused by the artist’s use of stuffed animals and their presence within the walls of a museum such as the Hermitage. For example, the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church stated that “such an exhibition should not have been held in the Hermitage,” and the exhibition itself “looks quite shameful.” At the same time, Sergei Shnurov commented on the exhibition: “I went to see Fabre at the Hermitage. And what I saw there: complex but readable rhymes, delicate integration and even respect for the old masters, which, frankly speaking, is rare for modern art. I didn’t see "I didn't see the feasting there, as well as the abuse of people, but rather the opposite. In my opinion, the provocativeness of the exhibition by "free fighters for culture" was greatly exaggerated, and the artistic merits went completely unnoticed by them."

It would be hard to call Jan Fabre just an artist. One of the most prominent Flemings on the contemporary art scene, over the past few decades he has worked in almost all areas of art. Fabre held his first exhibition in 1978, showing drawings made with his own blood. In 1980 he began staging plays, and by 1986 he founded his own theater company Troubleyn. Today the name of the Flemish is known far beyond the borders of his native Belgium. Fabre became the first artist whose works were exhibited at the Louvre during his lifetime (this was in 2008), and in 2015 he conducted an experiment on actors and spectators, setting up a Festspiele 24-hour performance "Mount Olympus".

Fabre calls himself a continuer of the traditions of Flemish art and “a gnome born in the land of giants,” referring to his great “teachers” - Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens. In Antwerp, where the master was born, lives and works, his father took him to Rubens’ house, where young Fabre copied the paintings of the famous painter. And his grandfather, the famous entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, went to the zoo, where the boy drew animals and insects, which later became one of the main themes of his work.

For Fabre, insects became not only an object artistic study, but also working material. In 2002, Queen Paola of Belgium approached the artist with a request to integrate contemporary art into interior design palace This is how one of the artist’s masterpieces appeared - "Sky of Delight". Fabre veneered the ceiling and one of the antique chandeliers of the Mirror Room Royal Palace, using almost 1.5 million scarab beetle shells. The material for the artist’s work was and continues to be brought from Thailand, where beetles are eaten and their shells are preserved for decorative purposes.

© Valery Zubarov

© Valery Zubarov

© Valery Zubarov

© Valery Zubarov

© Valery Zubarov

© Valery Zubarov

Fabre's works can be found in many public places in Belgium. In Brussels Museum of Ancient Art, for example, a few years ago his work appeared "Blue Hour", which occupied four walls above the Royal Staircase. Four photographic canvases painted with blue ballpoint pens Bic- another favorite instrument of Fabre - cost €350 thousand, which was paid by a philanthropist who wished not to give his name. On the canvases the artist depicted the eyes of four central creatures in his work - a beetle, a butterfly, a woman and an owl.

© angelos.be/eng/press

© angelos.be/eng/press

© angelos.be/eng/press

Fabre’s sculpture managed to “penetrate” even the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. Its rector had been looking for work for the temple for four years. Moreover, before this, the cathedral had not acquired works of art for more than a century. In the end, the choice fell on the sculpture of Jan Fabre "The Man Who Bears the Cross", which the abbot saw in one of the art galleries. For Fabre himself, this is a real source of pride. Firstly, his sculpture became the first piece of modern art inside this temple. Secondly, the artist turned out to be the first master after Rubens whose work was bought by the Antwerp Cathedral. And thirdly, for Fabre himself it was an attempt to connect two principles within himself - the religion of his deeply believing Catholic mother and the atheism of his communist father.

© angelos.be/eng/press

© angelos.be/eng/press

© angelos.be/eng/press

© angelos.be/eng/press

IN Hermitage Jan Fabre is bringing a retrospective of two hundred objects, which will last until April 9, 2017. It will stretch across the Winter Palace and go to Main Headquarters— the artist’s works will be included in the main exhibition. Preparation for this lasted for three years. “The Jan Fabre exhibition is part of the program Hermitage 20/21, in which we show important contemporary artists,” said "RBC Style" curator of the exhibition, head of the contemporary art department Hermitage Dmitry Ozerkov. — As a rule, we organize exhibitions in such a way that the authors build a dialogue with the classical works on display. IN Hermitage there is a collection of art from Flanders - both medieval and Golden Age masters, for example, Jordaens and Rubens. And Fabre’s project is focused on dialogue with the Flemings: in the same halls where their canvases are made from permanent exhibition have been hanging for hundreds of years, Ian’s works will be displayed, inspired by these works and speaking about the same themes - carnival, money, high art - in a new language.”

The artist created some of the works specifically for the exhibition in St. Petersburg. “Even before the start of the exhibition, he made a video performance, which became the semantic basis of the entire project: in the video, Fabre walks through the halls where his works will be housed in the future, and bows before the masterpieces of the past,” Ozerkov noted. “Also, a series of large-scale reliefs from Carrara marble were made especially for the exhibition, where Fabre depicts the kings of Flanders. In addition, the artist created drawings and sculptures from beetle shells on the themes of fidelity, symbols, and death.”

Alexey Kostromin

Through the halls Hermitage in the summer of 2016, Fabre not only walked, but did it in the armor of a medieval knight. And the exhibition was called . “It is believed that modern artists deny the old masters and oppose themselves to them. In Russia, the idea of ​​great classical art and modern authors who “ruin everything” is especially developed. Fabre's project is about how the author of our days, on the contrary, bows before the masterpieces of the past. "Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty" is an artist who dresses in armor and stands up for the old masters. Ian’s exhibition is about how modern and classical art unite to stand together against barbarism,” explained Dmitry Ozerkov.

“The work took three trucks to travel from Antwerp to St. Petersburg in a week, and their installation in the halls Hermitage will take three times longer,” said “ RBC Style" assistant curator Anastasia Chaladze. “We work with the whole department, Fabre himself and his four assistants. The artist himself directs some aspects and builds the exhibition. Some of the works turned out to be too heavy and large for an ancient building; when installing them, you need to be very careful and use specially designed podiums.”

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

© Alexey Kostromin

Two weeks before the start of the exhibition, trucks with large boxes continue to arrive on Millionnaya Street - through the entrance to the building New Hermitage, decorated with Atlantean figures, Fabre's work slowly moves several people inside at once. And in the halls—knightly and with Flemish painting—several of Fabre’s exhibits are installed and available to the public even before the opening: in the display cases opposite medieval armor and swords, for example, lie their more modern analogues, made by the Belgian from the shells of beetles shimmering with all colors. In another room, his sculptures face the paintings of Franz Snyders: here Fabre uses fragments of a human skeleton, a stuffed swan and a peacock made from beetles. The story continues in the room with 17th-century Dutch art, only this time with dinosaur skeletons and parrots.

Alexey Kostromin

When Fabre's works had already been delivered to Hermitage, the museum’s contemporary art department “has issued a cry” to find old lathes, sewing and printing machines for the artist’s installation "Umbraculum". Moreover, it was specified that the rustier they are, the better.

On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, Jan Fabre personally spoke "RBC Style" about the animal in man, taboo topics in creativity and naked flesh on Rubens's canvases.

Valery Zubarov

— Jan, in your work you often use unusual materials, for example, beetle shells. They can be seen on the ceiling and chandelier in the Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace in Brussels. How did this material appear in your artistic arsenal?

— When I was a child, my parents often took me to the zoo. There I was always inspired by animals: their reactions, behavior. Since childhood, I have drawn them along with people. I think insects - these little creatures - are very smart. They represent the memory of our past, because they are the most ancient creatures on earth. And, of course, many animals are symbols. Previously, they denoted professions and guilds. For example, in the painting by David Teniers the Younger "Group portrait of members of the shooting guild in Antwerp" that hangs in Hermitage, we see representatives of ancient guilds and each has its own “animal” emblem.

— Your Self-Portrait series “Chapter I - XVIII” was exhibited at the Museum of Ancient Art in Brussels. You depicted yourself at different periods of life, but with the obligatory attributes of the animal world - horns or donkey ears. Was this an attempt to find the animal in man?

— I think that people are animals. In a positive way! Today we cannot imagine our life without computers. But look at the dolphins. For millions of years they have been swimming at indescribable distances from each other and communicating using echography. And they are more advanced than our computers. So we can learn a lot from them.

— You say you are learning about your body and what is inside it. Is using your own blood to create works also one of the stages of self-knowledge?

— I was eighteen when I first painted a picture with blood. And this should be looked at as a Flemish tradition. Already several centuries ago, artists mixed human blood with animal blood to Brown color was more expressive. They also crushed human bones to make the whites more shiny. Flemish artists were alchemists and the founders of this type of painting. Therefore, my “bloody” paintings should be perceived in the traditions Flemish painting. And of course, in dialogue with Christ. Blood is a very important substance. It is she who makes us so beautiful and at the same time so vulnerable.

Hermitage, written more frankly than most contemporary works. Remember, one of the main themes of Rubens’s work is human flesh. He admired her beauty. But this is not a provocation, this is classical art. When I was young, I went to New York and met Andy Warhol there several times. And when he returned home, he boasted that he had met him. 400 years ago Rubens was Warhol.

It probably happens that one generation is open to everything, and the next is afraid of courage. It is very important to be proud of the human body, to see both its power and its vulnerability. How can you not support art that reveals this?

Installation of the Jan Fabre exhibition in the General Staff Building of the Hermitage

Alexey Kostromin

— You are talking about dialogue with the viewer, and in Russia there are problems with it.

— Yes, but they also exist in Europe. I am a supporter of the idea of ​​openness to everything. For me, being an artist means celebrating life in all its forms. And do it with respect for everyone and for the art itself.

— Your exhibition, which opens on October 22 at the Hermitage, is called “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty.” How did this image come about and what does it mean to you?

— Sometimes I call myself a beauty warrior. It's kind of a romantic idea. As a warrior, I must protect the vulnerability of beauty and the human race. And the “knight of despair” also fights for good. And in modern society warriors for me are Mandela and Gandhi. These are people who fought to make the world a better and more beautiful place.

The editor-in-chief of our website, Mikhail Statsyuk, shortly before the opening of the exhibition “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” at the State Hermitage, visited its author Jan Fabre in his creative workshop Troubleyn in Antwerp and discussed what to expect from his opening day in Russia.

The artist’s office and at the same time his workshop with rehearsal rooms settled in the building of a former theater, which stood abandoned after the fire. In front of the entrance you are greeted by a sign “Only art can break your heart. Only kitsch can make you rich." In the hall I stumble over a hatch - the work of Robert Wilson, which seems to connect the Belgian workshop with his theater academy, Watermill Center.

On the second floor, while we are waiting for Ian, for some reason we can smell the smells of a freshly prepared omelette or fried egg - behind the next wall there is a kitchen, the wall of which was painted by Marina Abramovich with pig's blood.

Art is literally everywhere here - even the toilet is indicated by a suspended neon hand that blinks, showing either two fingers or one. This is a work by artist Mix Popes, in which the “V” or Peace gesture refers to the feminine principle, and middle finger- to the masculine.

When Fabre appears in the hall, lighting a Lucky Strike cigarette, a heart-rending child’s cry is heard from somewhere below: “No, this is not a rehearsal for my new performance,” jokes the artist.

Tell us right away how you persuaded Mikhail Borisovich?

There was no need to persuade! Six or seven years ago, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky and the head of the Hermitage 20/21 project, Dmitry Ozerkov, saw my exhibition at the Louvre, and, it seems to me, they liked it. After another three years, we met with Mr. Piotrovsky, and he invited me to make an exhibition in the Hermitage. I went to Russia and realized that for this I would need a lot of space. Barbara de Koninck and I ( artistic director of the exhibition - Approx. ed.) we immediately settled on the hall with the Flemings - next to them I look like a gnome born in the land of giants. I grew up next to Rubens' house in Antwerp. At the age of six I tried to copy his paintings. The Hermitage seemed to me to be a repository of the great Flemings who fascinated me. I wanted to build a “dialogue” with the giants of Flanders’ past.

Who are you building a dialogue with?

For the Van Dyck Hall I created a series of marble bas-reliefs “My Queens”. This is a kind of allusion to his ceremonial portraits of important royalty of the time. “My Queens” are patrons and patrons of my work, made of Caribbean marble. But I do it jokingly, because my friends wear clown hats.

A new series of drawings “Carnival” about the celebration of life and fun - exactly like the church rituals to which my Catholic mother introduced me to as a child - a reference to the Hermitage paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Younger. The mixture of paganism with Christianity is an important element related to the traditions of the Belgian school, which is important to me. We are a small country and have always been under someone’s influence or ownership - German, Spanish, French. Such “peculiarities” are part of our personal history.

My “blue” canvases ( we are talking about “Bic-art” - a series of works “Blue Hour”, made with a blue Bic pen - Approx. ed.), which are also presented in the Hermitage, are made in a very special technique. I photograph the painting, then use ink to add about seven layers of blue - this is a special chemical color that changes under the influence of light and makes the painting work.

Separately, at the General Staff of the Hermitage, I present the video project “Love is a power supreme”. Globally speaking, my entire exhibition was created in the shape of a butterfly: if the works in the Winter Palace are its wings, then the video in the General Staff building is its body. Thanks to this, I want to combine the building of the “new” Hermitage, where the film will be shown, with the “old” one, where my paintings are exhibited. We plan to donate this film and several other works to the museum.

IN contemporary art there is a lot of garbage, but even in the time of Rubens there was a lot of garbage - where is the “garbage” now and where is Rubens?

“Knight of despair - warrior of beauty” - is this about you?

The title of the exhibition has its own romantic idea, which consists precisely in protecting the sensitivity and sensitivity that beauty contains within itself. On the other hand, this is also an image valiant knight who fights for good causes. But despair is more about me as an artist. Deep down, I always fear “defeat” or “failure.”

My family was not very rich. For my birthday, my father gave me small castles and fortresses. From my mother I received old lipsticks, which she no longer used, so that I could draw. I think mine romantic soul and the desire to always create something of our own grew precisely from childhood. This is partly why the definition of me as a “knight” appeared. But I myself am an artist who believes in hope, no matter how it sounds.

What is your mission as a knight?

Popularize classical art. It is the basis of everything, although at times it seems more restrained than the modern one. If we look at history, classical art has always been under the supervision of someone, be it the church or the monarchy. It’s a paradox, but at the same time it – art – played with them, limited itself.

In general, there is only one art in the world - good. It doesn't matter whether it's classic or modern, there are no boundaries between them. Therefore, it is important to teach people to recognize classical art so that they can better understand modern art. Of course, I do not deny that there is now a lot of garbage in the latter, but, listen, in the time of Rubens there was a lot of garbage - but where is this garbage now and where is Rubens!?

Jan Fabre is a sleek, gray-haired Belgian with a noble oval face and a thoroughbred nose. The older generation of shocking European aristocracy, tanned white people who stand for auteur cinema, on the one hand, and a deep enlightenment-narrative tradition, on the other. It took almost two years to figure out how to pack Fabre into the Hermitage, which only pretends to be the Louvre, but in fact remains a Byzantine palace. During this time, Fabre managed to do a lot of things in the world of performance and shocking, domestic Russian cultural processes changed their vector, and budgets changed their scope. It is precisely because of the contrast with trends and because of the reputation of the Hermitage that Fabre looks juicy and fresh. Main Museum The country, due to its enormity and imperial ambitions, is in many ways old-fashioned, but it is he who can afford to ignore the proliferating censors and “activists.” Finally, Fabre is Belgian, and a good half of the Hermitage second floor is occupied by his eminent fellow countrymen. Here reigns the one who gave birth to more than one coursework spirit Dutch art, adored by art critics, van Dyck and Rubens occupy the best positions in terms of light and geometry of the halls, monumental still lifes stretch like a carpet to the ceiling.

However, it’s better to start watching Fabre at the General Staff. Already ascending from the wardrobes along the cozy stairs, where on each step someone is photographed, you see a video on the screen: Jan Fabre walks through the empty Winter Palace, clanking his armor and kissing the exhibits. You feel envy, because you also want to dress up like a knight and retire with Rembrandt, touch the ancient frames. But you are only a modest connoisseur, and not a shocking artist, your destiny is a queue, crowds of tourists, the anger of the caretakers if you suddenly touch something.

State Hermitage Museum

Fabre actually notes in an interview that the Hermitage gave him much more freedom than the Louvre. It was the Paris exhibition that inspired the Hermitage functionaries to organize a similar event in Russia, and there may be some kind of competition taking place here. Move Van Dijk? Of course, just tell me where. Transform the magnificent old-regime hall of Flemish painting into an illustration of absinthe madness? Great idea!

But let's return to the General Headquarters. The exhibition begins with an absurd dialogue between a “beetle and a fly,” that is, Jan Fabre and Ilya Kabakov. “Kindergarten, oh, here we go kindergarten", - two ladies, who look to be the same age as Fabre, comment delicately clicking their heels and tongues. Actually, yes, kindergarten. Only an overpriced conceptualist and a degenerate European can afford to play some kind of larvae. Don't be jealous.

Before going to the exhibition, you are warned through all possible channels that the artist is a descendant of Jean-Henri Fabre, a major entomologist. Because the first impression of the exhibition still needs to be justified. It was as if we were watching a special episode of “In the Animal World” from the life of insects (or rather, from death). Something between the illustrations of Krylov’s fables and “Ant-Man” Marvel. Even the influence of a book about oral diseases on Francis Bacon was not so persistently recalled before the exhibition in the same Hermitage.

State Hermitage Museum

The apotheosis of the General Headquarters exposition falls on “Umbraculum”, “Carnival of Dead Mutts” and a symmetrical exhibition with dead cats. What an irony - while the whole country is discussing the Khabarovsk girl-killers, Fabre is enthusiastically hanging stuffed animals under the high ceiling of the headquarters. There are ribbons and confetti all around, restless mongrels are dressed in carnival hats. In this one can see a still life perception combined with atheism and Flemish traditions, but for the mass viewer without a sense of black humor, “Carnival” is just a strange perversion that someone let into the Hermitage. And “Umbraculum” must be deciphered for a long time and consistently. Some kind of ghosts in robes made of lace bone plates, flying wonders of orthopedics the color of spilled oil (the elytra of the goldfish seem to be a universal material). So we come to another “sharp corner” of Fabre’s work. Umbraculum in everyday meaning is a yellow-red umbrella made of silk. In the symbolic dimension it is the designation of a basilica, and basilica in Catholicism is the title of the chosen churches. Jan Fabre's mother was a devout Catholic, he himself is “fortunately an atheist,” which allows him to shamelessly juggle symbolism. Stuffed animals, skulls, bones and other material evidence of death for him - best material. And the purpose of the exhibits is not “reflection on death” at all, but its statement in the understanding of an atheist, a kind of fatalism of an atheist.

State Hermitage Museum

However, Fabre has one more dimension, which the Hermitage exhibition insists on. It is pathetically called “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty”; The exhibition in the historical halls is focused on the romantic, courtly component. In the knight's hall, beloved by children and impressionable adults, the artist was tempted to update the exhibition and placed the armor of a wasp and a beetle next to the horsemen. Just look at Fabre's next performance: a gray-haired artist, dressed in armor on his naked body, moves a sword back and forth. Or the sword moves him, it’s hard to say. Again, you envy the Belgian and also want to dress up in armor. But the most intriguing game moment is accidentally finding Fabre in the shadowed Hermitage halls. These could be huge bird heads or a stuffed rabbit (a nod to Durer), a skull holding a paint brush, and finally, a couple of Hermitage masterpieces drawn with a ballpoint pen. Rearrangements in familiar halls, global subordination of spaces modern artist- an injection of Botox to the Hermitage as a museum space, an invitation to our conservative viewer to play a little. And in this sense, the main thing is not with what degree of enthusiasm the art community will react to the exhibition, but what thousands of spectators will decide when they come across skulls and stuffed animals where they planned to show children, for example, Van Dyck’s Puritan Baroque.

Recommended for 16+. Jan Fabre is one of the most fertile and important artists of his generation. He has created a number of new works especially for this exhibition numbering more than 200 artworks.

The carnival giant in Brussels
Series
2016
20.3 x 16.8 cm

© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

The Gilles of Binche in full regalia on Shrove Tuesday
FALSIFICATION DE LA FÊTE SECRETE IV Series
2016
20.3 x 16.8 cm
HB pencil, color pencil and crayons on chromo
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

The Appearance and Disappearance of Antwerp I
2016
124 x 165.3 cm
Ballpoint (bic) on Poly G-flm (Bonjet High Gloss white flm 200gr), dibond
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

The Appearance and Disappearance of Christ I
2016
124 x 165.3 cm
Ballpoint (bic) on Poly G-film (Bonjet High Gloss white film 200gr), dibond
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

The loyal guide of vanity (II / III)
Series
2016
227 x 172 cm

© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

The loyal ecstasy of death
Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas Series
2016
227 x 172 cm
Jewel beetle wing-cases on wood
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

Els of Bruges
My Queens Series
2016
White Carrara-marble
200 x 150 x 11.5 cm
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

Ivana of Zagreb
My Queens Series
2016
White Carrara-marble
200 x 150 x 11.5 cm
© Angelos bvba/ Jan Fabre

Jan Fabre (Antwerp, 1958), a visual artist, theater artist and author, uses his works to speculate in a loud and tangible manner about life and death, physical and social transformations, as well as about the cruel and intelligent imagination which is present in both animals and humans.

For more than thirty-five years Jan Fabre has been one of the most innovative and important figures on the international contemporary art scene. As a visual artist, theater maker and author he has created a highly personal world with its own rules and laws, as well as its own characters, symbols, and recurring motifs. 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 seventies, while studying at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and Crafts in Antwerp, 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 a balance between the opposites that define natural existence. Metamorphosis is a key concept in any approach to Jan Fabre’s body of thought, in which human and animal life are in constant interaction. He unfolds his universe through his author’s texts and nocturnal notes, published in the volumes of his Night Diary. As a consilience artist, he has merged performance art and theater. Jan Fabre has changed the idiom of the theater by bringing real time and real action to the stage. After his historic eight-hour production "This is theater like it was to be expected and foreseen" (1982) and four-hour production "The power of theatrical madness" (1984), he raised his work to a new level in the exceptional and monumental "Mount Olympus. To glorify the cult of tragedy, a 24-hour performance" (2015).

Jan Fabre has earned the recognition of a worldwide audience with "Tivoli" castle (1990) and with permanent public works in sites of historical importance, such as "Heaven of Delight" (2002) at the Royal Palace in Brussels, "The Gaze Within ( The Hour Blue)" (2011 – 2013) in the Royal Staircase of the Museum of Fine Arts in Brussels and his latest installation in the Antwerp Cathedral of " The man who bears the cross" (2015).

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). The well-known series "The Hour Blue" (1977 – 1992) was displayed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (2011), in the Musée d'Art Moderne of Saint-Etienne (2012) and in the Busan Museum of Art (2013) ). His research on “the sexiest part of the body”, namely the brain, was presented in the solo shows “Anthropology of a planet” (Palazzo Benzon, Venice, 2007), “From the Cellar to the Attic, From the Feet to the Brain" (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2008; Arsenale Novissimo, Venice, 2009), and "PIETAS" (Nuova Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, Venice, 2011; Parkloods Park Spoor Noord, Antwerp, 2012). The two series of mosaics made with the wing cases of the jewel scarab "Tribute to Hieronymus Bosch in Congo" (2011 – 2013) and "Tribute to Belgian Congo" (2010– 2013) were shown at the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev (2013) and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille (2013) and will travel to 's-Hertogenbosch in 2016 for the 500th anniversary celebration of Hieronymus Bosch.

As emphasized by the artist and acknowledged by critics and researchers, his art goes back to the traditions of classic Flemish art, which he admires. Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens are important inspirations, and the visitors will (or won’t) see it for themselves. For the exhibition period, Fabre’s works will make part of the museum’s permanent exhibition and enter into a dialogue with the absolute international masterpieces. The idea of ​​the exhibition appeared after Jan Fabre had a large scale solo exhibition Jan Fabre. L'ange de la métamorphose at the Flanders and the Netherlands Rooms at the Louvre in 2008.

At the Hermitage halls, this “sketch” will develop into a major art event that is sure to spark a great interest and many debates, which are to be held at another intellectual discussion marathon. The exhibition will come with a series of lectures, master classes and round-table discussions. The exposition will air eight films, including the performance film Love is the Power Supreme (2016) featuring the artist, which was filmed in the Winter Palace in June 2016. This work will remain in the collection of The State Hermitage Collection. As a grandson of a famous entomologist, Jan Fabre widely uses the wildlife aesthetics. He uses beetle shells, animal skeletons and horns, as well as stuffed animals and images of animals in various materials. The list of unusual materials goes beyond that and covers blood and BIC blue ink.

The exhibition has been organized by the Contemporary Art Department at the State Hermitage in a frame of the Hermitage 20/21 Project. It is under patronage of V St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum.