In Alden Biesen castle, Jan Fabre prepares the first part of his trilogy The Minds of Helena Troubleyn, an opera created in partnership with Eugeniusz Knapik (the composer). Herman Van Eyken observes the work of the director/choreographer and gives his documentary an original form, more suggestive than explanatory, plunging the spectator directly into Jan Fabre’s universe. 

 Herman Van Eycken shows how Jan Fabre observes his team during the improvisations and ‘exercises’, capturing the creative forces and the personalities; how he then groups the material he has created, moving from the role of receiver to that of transmitter. Through the interviews presented in a voice off, as through the instructions given during rehearsals, we grasp the essence of Jan Fabre’s work, based on “musicality, rhythm, silences and movements”, of an exacting standard. The atmosphere of Van Eycken’s film is imbibed with that of Fabre’s show, a strange universe, at times enigmatic, a nocturnal kingdom dominated by the owl’s gaze, invasion of blue, the colour of the settings and costumes, obtained by scribbling in all directions using a blue ballpoint pen!

Jan Fabre (b. Antwerp, 1958) is a graduate of the Municipal Institute of Decorative Arts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. He is well known both at home and abroad as one of the most innovative and versatile artists of his day. Over the past 25 years, he has produced works as a performance artist, theatre maker, choreographer, opera maker, playwright and visual artist. Jan Fabre is renowned for expanding the horizons of every genre to which he applies his artistic vision.

In the late 1970s, the still very young Jan Fabre caused a furore as a performance artist. His 'money performances' involved setting fire to bundles of money from the audience in order to make drawings with the ashes. In 1982, the work "Het is theater zoals te verwachten en te voorzien was" (This is Theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen) placed a virtual bomb under the seat of the theatre establishment of the day. This was confirmed two years later with "De macht der theaterlijke dwaasheden" (The Power of Theatrical Madness) commissioned for the Venice Biennale. Since then, Jan Fabre has grown to become one of the most versatile artists on the international stage. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theatre by introducing the concept of 'real-time performance' – sometimes called 'living installations' – and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance.

Alongside age-old rituals and philosophical questions, Fabre also deals with such themes as violence, lust, beauty and erotica. The body in all its forms has been the subject of his investigations since the early 1980s. Productions such as "Je suis sang, Tannhäuser", "Angel of Death" and "Quando l'uomo principale è una donna" have earned international acclaim in this respect. The invitation to help lend artistic shape to the Avignon Festival in 2005 can undoubtedly be seen as a (provisional) pinnacle of Fabre's work in the domain of performing arts.

In 2007, Jan Fabre created "Requiem für eine Metamorphose" for the Salzburg Festspiele, which was also performed at the RuhrTriennale and the Vilnius Festival. In the same year he created I am a Mistake in collaboration with Chantal Akerman and Wolfgang Rihm for a selection of European concert houses. In 2008, Fabre wrote the solo Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day for the Croatian performer Ivana Jozic based on the legendary Bobbie Gentry hit, "Ode to Billy Joe". This theatre and dance solo was retaken in 2010 by the Greek performer Artemis Stavridi. Fabre's rencent production, Orgy of Tolerance explored the boundaries of normality in a society where everything is available and for sale and was considered "an absurdist satire of our shameless world of excess." This very successful production toured worldwide. In 2010, Fabre wrote the third part of the trilogy for Dirk Roofthooft: "The Emperor of Loss", "The King of Plagiarism" and "The Servant of Beauty" were performend both in Dutch and French.

Source : Jan Fabre / Angelos website

More information

janfabre.be

troubleyn.be