ART-PRESENTATION: Jan Fabre

Jan Fabre, Sexy Orgue de Barbarie Belge (Sexy Street Organ), 2017, Series: Belgian Sexual Folklore, Published and Offered By Jan Fabre, The Good Belgian Artist, Wood, pigment, paper, polymer, metal, electronics, 146,6 x 145,2 x 42,1 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/BrusselsJan Fabre lives and works in his native city, Antwerp. He is known for his powerful figurative or abstract drawings executed in blue ballpoint and his sculptures fraught with surface ornament. Fabre’s early drawings and sculptures of the 1970s reveal his abiding interest in performance art. Fabre’s works, which treat the weighty subjects of life, memory, and death by indirection, often come across as great feats of physical endurance.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Templon Archive

Over the last 30 years, Jan Fabre has become internationally recognized as one of the most innovative visual artists, playwrights and writers of his generation. Jan Fabre for the opening of the new space of Galerie Templon in Paris creates a unique body of work exploring his views of the complex and singular Belgian identity. The exhibition brings together a variety of drawings and sculptures  conceived especially for the exhibition, “Sexual Belgian Folklore” (2017-18) and “Sexual Belgian North Sea” (2018) are two parts conceived as a critical, humorous and loving tribute to his native country, known for its surreal approach to life. The two multimedia series explores the complex Belgian identity taking the viewers through a lively and crazy journey through its cultural heritage, exploring how the spheres of festivals, religion, sex and art, overlap and feed into each other. Around 50 drawings are in dialogue with sculptures, made from former church and vernacular objects found in attic sales. The colors and symbolism range from the subtle and serious as found in church art, all the way to the outlandish and garish, as can be seen in Belgium’s carnival and theatre traditions, something Jan Fabre is close to thanks to his career as stage director. His recently unveiled stage work, “Belgian Rules / Belgium Rules” (2017), also dissects his nationality in order to analyse how it could ‘connect rather than divide’, far from any arrogant or nationalist connotations.

Info: Galerie Templon, 28 rue du Grenier Saint-Lazare, Paris, Duration 17/5-21/7/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.templon.com

Left: Jan Fabre, The Chickens Being Fed, 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Goliath, le plus grand géant belge (Goliath the Biggest Belgian Giant), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passepartout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels
Left: Jan Fabre, The Chickens Being Fed, 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Goliath, le plus grand géant belge (Goliath the Biggest Belgian Giant), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passepartout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels

 

 

Left: Jan Fabre, La Procession du Saint-Sang à Bruges ( The ‘Holy Blood performance’ in Bruges), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Une nonne au béguinage (A Nun in the Beguinage), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passepartout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels
Left: Jan Fabre, La Procession du Saint-Sang à Bruges ( The ‘Holy Blood performance’ in Bruges), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Une nonne au béguinage (A Nun in the Beguinage), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passepartout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels

 

 

Left: Jan Fabre, Le joueur d’orgue de barbarie (The Organ Player), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Sexy Ange Belge (Sexy Belgian Angel), 2017, Series : Sexy Belgian Folklore, Wood, pigment, polymer, metal, 93,4 x 88,4 x 23,4 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels
Left: Jan Fabre, Le joueur d’orgue de barbarie (The Organ Player), 2017, Series Sexy Belgian Folklore, HB pencil, colour pencil on chromo, gilt frame, red velvet passe-partout, 33,5 x 29,5 x 2,2 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels. Right: Jan Fabre, Sexy Ange Belge (Sexy Belgian Angel), 2017, Series : Sexy Belgian Folklore, Wood, pigment, polymer, metal, 93,4 x 88,4 x 23,4 cm, Photo: Pat Verbrueggen, ©Angelos bvba, Courtesy Templon-Paris/Brussels