Jan Fabre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jan Fabre
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Jan Fabre (center) in 2008
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| Born | December 14, 1958 |
Jan Fabre (born 14 December 1958) is a Belgian multidisciplinary artist, playwright, stage director, choreographer and designer.
Biography and career
Fabre studied at the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp (BE).
He wrote his first scripts for theatre between 1976 and 1980 and also did his first solo performances. During his 'money-performances', he burned money and wrote the word 'MONEY' with the ashes. In 1977, he renamed the street where he lived to "Jan Fabre Street" and fixed a commemorative plaque "Here lives and works Jan Fabre" to the house of his parents, analogous to the commemorative plate on the house of Vincent van Gogh in the same street. From 1980, Fabre began his career as a stage director and stage designer. In 1986 he established the Troubleyn/Jan Fabre theatre company with extensive international operations; its home base is Antwerp, Belgium.
Fabre became known for his Bic-art (ballpoint drawings). In 1980, in 'The Bic-Art Room', he had himself locked up for three days and three nights in a white cube full of objects, drawing with blue "Bic" ballpoint pens as an alternative to "Big" art. In 1990 he covered an entire building with ballpoint drawings.
Fabre also explored relationships between drawing and sculpture creating sculptures in bronze (among them The man who measures the clouds and Searching for Utopia) and with beetles. He decorated the ceiling of the Royal Palace in Brussels with one million six hundred thousand jewel-scarab wing cases for his work Heaven of Delight. In 2004 he erected Totem, a giant bug stuck on a 70-foot steel needle, on the Ladeuzeplein in Leuven (BE).
In September 2016 Fabre made an attempt to not break cyclist Eddy Merckx's 1972 hour record at the Tête d'Or Velodrome in Lyon. Fabre completed a total of 23km in an hour, compared to Merckx's record of over 49km. Merckx, fellow cyclist Raymond Poulidor, and veteran cycling commentator Daniel Mangeas commentated the event, which was performed as the opening of his "Stigmata" retrospective exhibition organised by the Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon. Fabre described the attempt as "how to remain a dwarf in the land of giants".
Exhibitions
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- The Angel of Metamorphosis exhibition, Louvre Museum (2008)
Theatre productions (selected)
- Theater geschreven met een K is een kater (1980)
- Het is theater zoals te verwachten en te voorzien was ("It is Theatre as to be Expected and Foreseen" 1982)
- De macht der theaterlijke dwaasheden ("The power of theatrical madness", Venice Biennale 1984)
- Das Glas im Kopf wird vom Glas (1987)
- Prometheus Landschaft (1988)
- Das Interview das stirbt... (1989)
- Der Palast um vier Uhr morgens... A.G. (1989)
- Die Reinkarnation Gottes (1989)
- Das Glas im Kopf wird vom Glas (1990)
- The Sound of one hand clapping (1990)
- Sweet Temptations (1991)
- She was and she is, even (1991)
- Wie spreekt mijn gedachte ... (1992)
- Silent Screams, Difficult Dreams (1992)
- Vervalsing zoals ze is, onvervalst (1992)
- Da un’altra faccia del tempo (1993)
- Quando la terra si rimette in movimento (1995)
- Three Dance-solos (1995)
- A dead normal woman (1995)
- Universal Copyrights 1 & 9 (1995)
- De keizer van het verlies (1996)
- The very seat of honour (1997)
- Body, Body on the wall (1997)
- Glowing Icons (1997)
- The Pick-wick-man (1997)
- Ik ben jaloers op elke zee… (1997)
- The fin comes a little bit earlier this siècle (But business as usual) (1998)
- Het nut van de nacht (1999)
- As long as the world needs a warrior’s soul (2000)
- My movements are alone like streetdogs (2000)
- Je suis Sang (conte de fées médiéval) (2001)
- Het zwanenmeer (2002)
- Swan lake (2002)
- Parrots & guinea pigs (2002)
- Je suis sang (2003)
- Angel of death (2003)
- Tannhäuser (co-production) (2004)
- Elle était et elle est, même (2004)
- Etant donnés (2004)
- Quando L'Uomo principale è una donna (2004)
- The crying body (2004)
- The King of Plagiarism (2005)
- History of Tears (2005)
- I am a Mistake (2007)
- Requiem für eine Metamorphose (2007)
- Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day (2008)
- The Servant of Beauty (2010)
- Preparatio Mortis (2010)
- Prometheus–Landscape II (2011)
- Tragedy of a Friendship (2013)
- Attends, Attends, Attends... (Pour mon Père) (2014)
- Mount Olympus. To Glorify the Cult of Tragedy. A 24-hour performance. (2015)
- Belgium Rules/Belgian Rules (2017)
- The Generosity of Dorcas (2018)
- The Night Writer (2020)
See also
In Spanish: Jan Fabre para niños
