“I Am Blood”: The new solo exhibition of Jan Fabre

Fabre continues to challenge, inspire and move, bringing out beauty through the simplicity and timelessness of forms, while honouring ancient techniques

Crux Galerie is delighted to present I Am Blood, a solo exhibition by the renowned artist Jan Fabre. Curated by art historian and curator Dr. Katerina Koskina, a long-standing collaborator of the artist, this exhibition features a selection of Fabre’s latest mosaic artworks, where his appreciation of the ancient techniques is exquisitely revealed.

The I Am Blood series, comprises 24-karat gold tiles and smalti mosaics. Jan Fabre, renowned for his “Renaissance approach”, intertwines art, literature, theatre, dance and music with mythology, fairy tales, craftsmanship and science. This series visually reinterprets the themes of Fabre’s iconic performance, Je suis sang, originally commissioned by the 55th Festival d’Avignon for the Cour d’Honneur in 2001, which was exceptionally re-performed in the same festival in 2005.

Presented as a medieval poem written and brought to life through direction, choreography and scenography, by Fabre himself, the performance left an indelible mark on the art world with its profound focus on the fundamental component of human existence — blood.

The exhibition at Crux Galerie will be enriched by a number of HB pencil and blood drawings on paper, created in 2005, when Je suis sang was traveling in other cities and festivals. Two decades later, during the pandemic, the artist revisited this thematic framework and created a new series using exclusively the technique of mosaic. The works stand out for their minimalist aesthetic, in terms of colour (mainly gold) and form, and are a unique expression of the artist’s multi-dimensional creativity. Through this recent body of works, Fabre continues to challenge, inspire and move, bringing out beauty through the simplicity and timelessness of forms, while honouring ancient techniques.

“Mosaic was used for centuries as a record, a chronicle of stories. Myths, scenes of glory, death or love, sports and feats, everyday objects and habits, images from the living world of land, water and sky, but also religious images and others from the realms of science and imagination. Mosaic has been used to register all these, retaining unaltered for centuries the spirit, the fascination and the truth of their time, as well as their symbolic power.” Katerina Koskina, excerpt from her essay of the Jan Fabre, MOSAICS, Nov 2023, Edizioni Forma, Florence Italy.

“Fabre is enamoured in the Middle Ages, a period of transition that developed between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Renaissance, and marking the end of the Ancient and the start of the Modern. […] Writing and graphics stand out against a background of gold, the quintessential iconic metal, solar and divine light, liberation, expansion, energy, altruism, purity, mental, spiritual and eternal perfection.” Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, excerpt from his essay of the Jan Fabre, MOSAICS, Nov 2023, Edizioni Forma, Florence Italy.

About the artist

Jan Fabre (b. 1958, Antwerp) is regarded both in Belgium and abroad as one of the most innovative and versatile personalities in the contemporary international art scene. With a career spanning over 40 years, Jan Fabre has left an indelible mark as a visual artist, theatre artist, and writer. Fabre labels himself a consilience artist, merging elements from different disciplines guided by fact-based theory and practice across disciplines. Through this interdisciplinary approach, he continually offers fresh interpretations while creating an intensely personal visual oeuvre, a unique and coherent universe with recurring symbols and motifs. Jan Fabre achieved the distinction of being the first contemporary artist to hold solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions like the Louvre Museum in Paris (2008) and the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg (2017). Jan Fabre’s artistic reach extends beyond traditional gallery spaces, integrating artworks into various public locations, such as the Royal Palace (2002), the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels (2013), the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp (2015), and the Antwerp St. Augustine’s Church/AMUZ (2018).

Jan Fabre’s artistic research and practice are deeply rooted in the rich traditions of ancient Greek mythology, philosophy, and theatre. Drawing from these sources of inspiration, Fabre has consistently engaged with Greek culture, presenting his multifaceted body of work—encompassing visual art, performance, and literature—throughout Greece since the 1990s.

In 2019, Fabre’s profound relation with the history of art and his respect and admiration for the work of artists, as well as authors and scientists, of earlier times, whom he considers his Masters, was further cemented with the installation of four red coral sculptures in the chapel of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, Italy. These works now reside permanently alongside Caravaggio’s work, creating a dialogue between contemporary and classical art that exemplifies Fabre’s ability to bridge historical and modern artistic expressions.