jan fabre at the venice art biennale 09 preview

jan fabre the future merciful heart for men and women. glass, bIC pen blue, human bones each 0,83 x 1 x 2,10 m installation view 2nd floor photo: markus tretter © jan fabre/VBK, wien, 2008, kunsthaus bregenz

jan fabre from the feet to the brain june 6 to september 20, 2009 curator: eckhard schneider inviting curator: giacinto di pietrantonio

jan fabre’s new work series ‘from the cellar to the attic – from the feet to the brain,’ which he elaborated for the kunsthaus bregenz in 2008, represented an important step in his work development. with five room-filling sculptural tableaus, fabre created a mythical world of horror, beauty, and metamorphosis that was hardly conceivable unconventional artistic terms and constantly alternated between reality and dream. the installation followed the layout of the human body. five exhibition levels with metaphoric titles borrowed from different zones of the body – starting with the feet in the basement and ending with the brain on the upper level. courtesy of the galleria d’arte moderna e contemporaneadi bergamo (gamec), studio fabre, the kunsthaus bregenz and the support of linda and guy pieters, jan fabre will be installing his five sculptural tableaus at the 53rd venice biennale, showing it to a broad international art audience.

jan fabre shelter-studio for the chilean artist-warriors and cleaning ladies cement, wood, cloth, amunition, human brains and organs, stuffed animals, glass, water, formaldehyd, bic pen blue, silicon, metal installation view first basement photo: markus tretter © jan fabre/VBK, wien, 2008, kunsthaus bregenz

with the installation ‘from the feet to the brain,’ fabre ponders the artistic rules of his work and the bounds of his previous artistic practice. his basic principles can be broken down as follows: 1. the awareness of the power of the images of the real that was discovered in the flemish primitives, further developed through the visual force of performances and theater, and finally emerged in the form of sculptural tableaus; 2. the extreme concentration on the body as the crystallization point between life and death, agony and fulfillment; 3. the fascination for the insect as a symbol of metamorphosis, as the subject of intense investigations, and as an important material for rawings, objects, and wall and room-filling installations; 4. the constant application of the mechanical, self-driven principle in all artistic activities, a principle that originates from the discovery of the body and the behavior of insects; 5. the fascination for mirroring and doubling, which is the point of departure for many works. ‘the feet,’ ‘the sex,’ ‘the belly,’ ‘the heart,’ and ‘the brain’ – these five elements, each in its own way visually overwhelming, will be presented anew in the halls of the arsenale novissimo.

jan fabre fountain of the world (as a young artist) granite, goldcolour, leather, cloth, silicon, human hair, fluid, electronics 0,80 x 4,25 x 10,5 m installation view ground floor photo: markus tretter © jan fabre/vbk, wien, 2008, kunsthaus bregenz

jan fabre I had to break down a part of the ceiling of the royal palace because there was something growing out of it wood, plaster, metal, armor of juwel beetle, silicon 5,6 x 9,6 x 10,4 m installation view 1st floor photo: markus tretter © jan fabre/VBK, wien, 2008, kunsthaus bregenz

‘the heart’

‘the brain’

jan fabre in the trenches of the brain as an artist-lilliputian wood, earth, polyester, wax, silicon, leather, cloth, human hair installation view 3rd floor photo: markus tretter © jan fabre/VBK, wien, 2008, kunsthaus bregenz

jan fabre at the venice art biennale 09 preview

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