Visual artist, choreographer, writer and director, Jan Fabre has been one of the most influential figures on the European scene for over twenty years. His provocative forays into all different art forms are aimed at breaking down the artistic and moral barriers of his times. Published on the occasion of the exhibition of Fabre’s works at the MAXXI in Rome, the monograph brings together, for the first time, the action art and performances of the Belgian artist from the 70s to the present: drawings, “thinking models”, collages, films, photos and other documentation that lay the groundwork for a rediscovery of dozens of Fabre’s performances and interventions, both public and private, held in Belgium and abroad. The extreme, even brazen exploration of the human body, which frequently scandalizes viewers, is linked to the idea of metamorphosis, which Fabre may have derived from that passion for the sciences he inherited from his great-grandfather, the esteemed entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre. Jan Fabre has devoted much of his career to studying the human body and its transfiguration, central themes in his work; the artist considers performance art a “per-for-a(c)tion” of the body with respect to the outer world: a way to explore its limits, actions and reactions, both inside and out.
