
:art talks

Jan Fabre
STIGMATA. Actions & Performances 1976-2016
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Foto: courtesy of Leopold Museum Wien
Fabre, A Meeting Vstrecha, 1987 ©Angelos Bvba / Foto: M3 Studio (Rome)
JAN FABRE
STIGMATA. Actions & Performances 1976-2016
Art Talk with Jan Fabre
“There is a Jan Fabre who is a clown. There is a Jan Fabre who is stupid and a Jan Fabre who is a scientist, an entomologist, a philosopher, a night owl,” Jan Fabre declares. The universal artist’s body contains a multitude of personifications. They all take their positions in this pandemonium tamed by Germano Celant into an exhibition of visions, ideas, figments, objects, hypotheses and documents that are presented under the title Stigmata at Leopold Museum in the scope of ImPulsTanz. In 1976, a young Jan Fabre visited an exhibition in Bruges of paintings by Flemish masters showing stigmata and flagellations. “A shock,” he says. “That’s when I discovered the concept of performance, even before I was aware of the term itself.” His first performance actions were burning money and drawing with his own blood. At the centre of his oeuvre, situated between visual art and theatrical works, Fabre identifies the “performance section” as “self-perforation” and a search within oneself: “What is the meaning of the skin, the blood, the urine? And why do we sweat?” (PRESS RELEASES, ImPulsTanz)
Examining and liberating
the body is a sacred duty.
My catechism:
Art is the father
Beauty the son
And freedom the spirit.
Jan Fabre, 1983
07th July to 27th August 2017
ImPulsTanz. Vienna International Dance Festival
Video Producer
global:artfair
Kunst und Medienagentur
Director and Editor
Jesus Rivero
Moderation and Production
Diana Smaczynski
Alle von uns abgebildeten Werke unterliegen dem Schutz des Urheberrechts.
Wir besitzen keine Rechte an den Werken.
(Hintergrund) Exhibition view / 2017 Leopold Museum
Jan Fabre
Foto: © global:artfair
© Leopold Museum, Photo: Lisa Rastl courtesy of Leopold Museum Wien
Tea-hangover (1980) Black & white photo print, 25 × 16 cm © Angelos bvba Photo: Marc Gubbels courtesy of Leopold Museum Wien
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Photo: global:artfair
© Leopold Museum, Photo: Lisa Rastl courtesy of Leopold Museum Wien