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Fabre, Jan (1958- )
Antwerp. Multidisciplinary art, dramaturgy, stage direction, choreography and design.

He studied at the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts in Antwerp and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

During his childhood his father promoted his approach to art and zoology, and made him draw what he observed. He inherited the books and manuscripts from a family entomologist, Jean-Henry Fabre, who influenced his visual production.

His imaginary draws on the long tradition of Flemish art around the celebration of metamorphosis and human fragility, nourishing his aesthetic scene with artistic manifestations such as the macabre dances of medieval aesthetics, and the Flemish artists Van Eyck, Van Dyck and Rubens. In all his works there is the idea of Memento mori as a celebration of death, because he accepts it as an aspect of life. In this sense, iconographically insects are a symbol; specifically, beetles are for Fabre the representation of the bridge between life and death, understanding it as a positive energy and a concrete object that keeps us awake. This idea led him to reflect on the internal morphology of the human body and the external skeleton of insects.

He experiments with skin and muscles to create new ways of relating to the world. It produces beauty with what is censored. He exhibits naked bodies that are transfigured into anthropomorphic landscapes, humans like insects that move repeatedly and rhythmically, exhausted bodies that exude life and death: he projects the human as impulse, urgency, instinct, stench and fluids. In research on what is the political and social meaning of blood, as well as body fluids, he comes to the conclusion that blood in our society is more expensive than gold.

He considers that his work essentially defends the vulnerability of the human body and tries to investigate the body as a political act. His theater sees it as a manifesto that propagates the anarchy of love and respect for the body, that does not attempt to resolve social or political conflicts, but rather talks about the secret truths of bodily reality.

Fabre's work has generated controversy between critics and experts, because they are creations that in some cases are difficult to classify, because of the use of provocative elements and materials or because of the daring of his experimental work.

In ArtxiboAZ