BOOK:Jan Fabre-Knight of Despair|Warrior of Beauty, SKIRA Publications

For more than 35 years Jan Fabre has been one of the most innovative and important figures on the international contemporary art scene. As a visual artist, theatre 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. The book “Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair|Warrior of Beauty” by SKIRA Publications catalogues the entirety of the exhibition Jan Fabre at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (22/10/16-30/4/17). Fabre uses his works to speculate openly and tangibly about life and death, physical and social transformations, and the nature of cruelty as seen among both animals and humans. He defines, lives and expresses himself as a “knight of despair” and a “warrior of beauty”. As emphasized by the artist and acknowledged by critics and researchers, his work goes back to the traditions of classic Flemish art, which he admires. Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens are important inspirations. For the exhibition period, Fabre’s works will make part of the museum’s permanent exposition and enter in a dialogue with the absolute international masterpieces. 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. Some unprepared visitors were shocked by the works of Fabre, especially much of the viewers were angered by the “Protest of the dead stray cats” and “Carnival of the dead mongrels”  that  encapsulate stuffed animals, but Fabre himself has repeatedly told reporters that dogs and cats that appear in his installations, it is stray animals dead on the roads and he is trying to give them new life in art and thus to conquer death. This book with 288 pages and 240 illustrations highlights Fabre’s desire to establish a dialogue between his work and that of past masters, based on motifs from myth and legend. The book will be on sale on March 2017.-Efi Michalarou