Truly a multidisciplinary artist, Jan Fabre is a playwright, a stage director, choreographer, designer and a sculptor. He also draws, paints and makes installations. Though he is primarily engaged with his Troubleyn/Jan Fabre theatre company he is, to a no small extent, known for his sculptures and drawings. It’s a very unique relationship between the two disciplines, Mr. Fabre investigates. In his drawings, sculpting techniques are of key interest, and in sculptures he seeks the freedom of a blank piece of paper and a drawing tool.

Among his acclaimed sculptures is Searching for Utopia – a bronze statue of a man riding a giant turtle, towards the sea. Presumably, Utopia is not close and/or quickly reachable, if at all-still, the man rides. Also an iconic piece, The man who measures the clouds – an homage to his late brother, a dreamer. We quote Mr. Fabre, from an interview on the subject: “It expresses the feeling of planning the impossible, which is actually what an artist does.”. A perpetual process art is, it is perhaps best described as striving.

The installation in the photo below, as well as work in almost all others, is from Angel of Metamorphosis, an exhibition Mr. Fabre had in the Louvre, in 2008. We can see a man shoveling through a brain in search for ideas, or self-portraits of the artist in question, in form of a giant worm, or adorned with impressive horns – all portraying the process of metamorphosis. In free words, we would say Mr. Fabre is a firm believer in change. The power of art is to make one think, and he who thinks is bound to change. It’s the beauty in art that can imbue spectators with powerful impressions that change for good, and for the better. So, is an artist sculpting a statue, or the world itself?

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