Art kept me out of jail
Jan Fabre, Art kept me out of jail
UGM | Maribor Art Gallery, Strossmayerjeva 6
opening: Friday, 4 May 2012 at 19.00
The exhibition Art kept me out of jail is focusing on three performance installations by the extraordinary Belgian artist Jan Fabre. The exhibition was previously on view at Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp (2010) and at Muzeum Sztuki in Łodz (2011).
The title of the exhibition is adapted from the four-hour long performance of the same name, which Jan Fabre held on the occasion of his comprehensive solo show L’ange de la métamorphose at the Musée du Louvre in 2008. The performance Art kept me out of jail was inspired by the character of French criminal Jacques Mesrine, who was notorious for his many escapes from French prisons. Throughout the exhibition at Maribor Art Gallery Jan Fabre will present three installations documenting the performances Art kept me out of jail (2008), Virgin/Warrior (2004) and Sanguis/Mantis (2001), together with works on paper, photographs and a sculpture on the theme of Fabre/Mesrine. The exhibition is an unique opportunity to see Virgin/Warrior, a joint work by Fabre and Marina Abramović, performed at Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The artists are dressed in knight’s armors of a vespula vulgaris (Abramović, role of the virgin) and oryctes rhinoceros (Fabre, role of the warrior). Locked in a glass cube they act out a performance consisting of 26 acts (e.g. clashing armor, breathing, taking up insect positions, carrying each other, removing helmets, cutting into their arms, holding hearts in their hands, ...).
Jan Fabre is an artist-researcher, exploring the limits of the body, consciousness and imagination. A consilience* artist looking for a place where experiences from a variety of disciplines can be brought together.
Jan Fabre (1958) graduated at the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Over the last 30 years he has built up a sizeable body of work and became an internationally acclaimed visual artist, theatre maker and author. He lives and works in Antwerp, where he based the Angelos office (which runs his visual arts) and Troubleyn/Jan Fabre ( which is responsible for his stage work and the work of the Troubleyn/Laboratorium). As visual artist he makes installations, sculptures, drawings, films and performances. His best-known works include Tivoli (1990, Mechelen), a mansion covered entirely in Bic ballpoint drawing, The man who measures the clouds (1998), a bronze sculpture, versions of which can be seen in Ghent & Antwerp (Belgium), Kanazawa (Japan) and Catanzaro (Italy), Heaven of Delight (2002), a permanent work commissioned by Queen Paola of Belgium for the Royal Palace in Brussels and Pietas, the marble sculptures shown on the occasion of the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).Fabre has taken part in such major international art events such as the Venice Biennale (different years from 1984, 1990, 2003, 2011), Documenta Kassel (1987, 1992), the Sao Paolo Biennale (1991), the Lyon Biennale (2000), Thessaloniki Biennale (2011) and held large scale solo exhibitions worldwide. Some of the more recent and leading exhibitions were Anthropology of a Planet (Venice 2007), L'ange de la métamorphose (Musée du Louvre 2008), From the Cellar to the Attic. From the Feet to the Brain (Kunsthaus Bregenz 2008), From the feet to the Brain (Venice 2009), Alternative humanities: Jan Fabre & Katsura Funakoshi (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa 2010), Hortus / Corpus (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo 2011) The Years of the Hour Blue (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011 and currently at Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint-Étienne) and Pietas, which was on view last year at the Venice Biennale and will open in Antwerp May 2012.
Curator: Bart De Baere (MuHKA, Antwerp)
Co-produced by: Zavod Kultivacija
*Consilience: 'a jumping together of knowledy by the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork for explanation' (after William Whewell, quoted in E.O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge)
ANNOUNCING JAN FABRE AT EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE MARIBOR 2012
Monday, 7 May 2012 at 19:00, Slovene National Theatre Maribor, Kazinska Hall
Talk with the artists Jan Fabre as part of the project TWELVE. In conversation with Saša Šavel Burkart.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012 at 20:00, Slovene National Theatre Maribor, Old Stage
World premiere of the theatre performance DRUGS KEPT ME ALIVE, directed by Jan Fabre in collaboration with the dancer and choreographer Antony Rizzi.
www.angelos.be, www.troubleyn.be, www.troubleynlaboratorium.be
www.maribor2012.info
YOU ARE KINDLY INVITED!
