Jan Fabre: An artist in society is like a street animal. Knight of despair - warrior of beauty Jan Fabre exhibition in the Hermitage

Yesterday the exhibition "" of the most famous Belgian artist contemporary art our days, as well as theater director- Jan Fabra. At the opening of the exhibition, Jan Fabre opened it slightly to a Fontanka correspondent. mysterious meanings its objects built into the historical and modern collections of the Hermitage.

This summer, multi-ton golden sculptures by Fabre appeared next to the great works of classical Italian art in Florence, eight years ago the artist’s works were exhibited in the Louvre, last year in Berlin there was a high-profile theatrical premiere by Fabre, a 24-hour continuous marathon “Mount Olympus”, which was attended by all the leading representatives of the world theater. The exhibition “Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” in the Hermitage was included in the top five most significant events for Russia this fall in the field of contemporary art.

“It was a very long project and a long conversation,” says the curator of the exhibition, head of the Department of Contemporary Art of the State Hermitage Dmitry Ozerkov. “We initially understood that the exhibition should become a dialogue between a Flemish artist and Flemish art. And at the same time talking about chivalry, about medieval culture. Therefore, the route naturally lined up along the Flemish part of the collection. Paintings and sculptures by Jan Fabre are neatly integrated into the Hermitage collection. Fine filigree work has been done. The condition of this exhibition was that no paintings from permanent exhibition, we can't clean up. Jan Fabre is built in the middle, in the walls - this is the condition of the game, the main difficulty and, it seems to me, the main success in the result.”

Jan Fabre himself, who draws inspiration from the work of Peter Paul Rubens, as he has repeatedly stated in interviews, says the following about this technical necessity: “I tried not only to exhibit my works, but also to highlight Rubens.”

In a sense, you are the Napoleon of modern art and even more: you have conquered not only France, Italy, but even Russia. What do you think about it?

I don't think this is the terminology of art - submitted. I do not perceive art in the concept of conquest, rather, of vital necessity, pleasure, energy. Happy to be in the Hermitage - a fantastic, great museum in the world. Here is the best collection of Rubens, Van Dyck, Snailers. I really love Russian culture, its depth. I grew up on it, in my youth I was interested in Gogol and Dostoevsky. For me, being in Russia, in St. Petersburg, is a great joy. Rubens - great artist, as a child I redrew his paintings. In the halls of Van Dyck, a student of Rubens, who mainly painted members of the royal family and nobility, I placed the series “My Queens”. On the bas-reliefs made of Carrara marble are images of my assistants, princesses, my team. And in the center of the hall stands sculptural image the current Princess Elisabeth of Belgium. All this is my dedication to women, feminine power. As for the festive caps on their heads, this is a metaphor for the crown, and at the same time, a symbol of joy and triumph. From an object of officiality, the crown turns into a Belgian celebration, a holiday. In the halls of Snyders there is mine new job- sculpture with a swan. Snyders's paintings depict freshly killed animals, looking at which it is as if you feel the warmth of a creature that has just died. My works are a continuation of his works, a dialogue.

In Flemish art, in addition to triumph and energy, there is aggression and violence: it is no coincidence image of the dead animals. How are aggression and violence related to the joy of life?

I don't think it's violence, I think it's a celebration of life. Don't forget that in Russia they still eat rabbits. And this is a normal process, this happens. In Belgium there is a special attitude towards animals. We believe that they are best philosophers in the world. And the best doctors. We, people, must listen to them, and in some ways even learn.

- Who came up with such a poetic title for the exhibition: “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty”? And what does it mean?

Photo: From the personal archive of Dmitry Ozerkov, head of the Hermitage’s contemporary art department

Artist. ME: I am a knight of despair, so I feel like Lancelot who accepts the challenge. The challenge is to protect the vulnerable beauty of our human world. And, of course, as an artist I am always in despair, so I am always close to failure. By at least, I feel exactly like that.

- Therefore, your works, in particular, animal skeletons, skulls - can they be considered guardians?

In any art, animals are always a symbol of something. My art is no exception. Each of them is a guard, but also a designation of something. There is such an interweaving here. For example, the taxidermied dogs and cats that you see at the exhibition were, of course, not killed by me. They were already dead when I found them on the side of the highway. These are street, stray animals. By the way, they are the same as me. In society, the artist exists on the same rights as they do. As soon as we express our real opinions, society throws us overboard.

- How do you come up with your works? What comes first - structure or content?

Content. But then everything takes the right form. For example, the exhibition in the Hermitage: its dramaturgy was born from the form when I saw a photo of the museum from above. Two buildings nearby, the Winter Palace and Main Headquarters, reminded me of the wings of a butterfly, and Alexandria pillar- the needle on which it is pinned. Content is always expressed through form, and dramaturgy arises from content.

- What is the most controversial review about your exhibition?

I really love it when children visit my exhibitions - this happens quite often in Europe. I admire their reactions. Truthful and honest. For example, among my works there are two gilded sculptures, the surface of which consists of protruding needles. So the children say: “Look, this man is like a hedgehog.” They are absolutely right, because the artist at the moment of creativity and in general is very vulnerable. We are all forced to create some kind of protection for ourselves. Children react and explain everything better than any art critic. And most importantly, they look to the essence.

Olesya Pushkina, Fontanka.ru

The "Afisha Plus" project was implemented using a grant from St. Petersburg

The editor-in-chief of our website, Mikhail Statsyuk, shortly before the opening of the exhibition “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” in State Hermitage visited its author Jan Fabre at his creative workshop Troubleyn in Antwerp and discussed what to expect from his opening day in Russia.

The artist’s office and at the same time his workshop with rehearsal rooms settled in the building former theater, which stood abandoned after the fire. In front of the entrance you are greeted by a sign “Only art can break your heart. Only kitsch can make you rich." In the hall I stumble over a hatch - the work of Robert Wilson, which seems to connect the Belgian workshop with his theater academy, Watermill Center.

On the second floor, while we are waiting for Ian, for some reason we can smell the smells of a freshly prepared omelette or fried egg - behind the next wall there is a kitchen, the wall of which was painted by Marina Abramovich with pig's blood.

Art is literally everywhere here - even the toilet is indicated by a suspended neon hand that blinks, showing either two fingers or one. This is a work by artist Mix Popes, in which the "V" or Peace gesture refers to feminine, A middle finger- to the masculine.

When Fabre appears in the hall, lighting a Lucky Strike cigarette, a heart-rending child’s cry is heard from somewhere below: “No, this is not a rehearsal for my new performance,” jokes the artist.

Tell us right away how you persuaded Mikhail Borisovich?

There was no need to persuade! Six or seven years ago, Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky and the head of the Hermitage 20/21 project, Dmitry Ozerkov, saw my exhibition at the Louvre, and, it seems to me, they liked it. After another three years, we met with Mr. Piotrovsky, and he invited me to make an exhibition in the Hermitage. I went to Russia and realized that for this I would need a lot of space. Barbara de Koninck and I ( artistic director exhibitions - Approx. ed.) we immediately settled on the hall with the Flemings - next to them I look like a gnome born in the land of giants. I grew up next to Rubens' house in Antwerp. At the age of six I tried to copy his paintings. The Hermitage seemed to me to be a repository of the great Flemings who fascinated me. I wanted to build a “dialogue” with the giants of Flanders’ past.

Who are you building a dialogue with?

For the Van Dyck Hall I created a series of marble bas-reliefs “My Queens”. This is a kind of allusion to his ceremonial portraits of important royalty of the time. “My Queens” are patrons and patrons of my work, made of Caribbean marble. But I do it jokingly, because my friends wear clown hats.

A new series of drawings “Carnival” about the celebration of life and fun - exactly like church rituals, to which my Catholic mother introduced me as a child - a reference to the Hermitage paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Younger. The mixture of paganism with Christianity is an important element related to the traditions of the Belgian school, which is important to me. We are a small country and have always been under someone’s influence or ownership - German, Spanish, French. Such “peculiarities” are part of our personal history.

My “blue” canvases ( we are talking about “Bic-art” - a series of works “Blue Hour”, made with a blue Bic pen - Approx. ed.), which are also presented in the Hermitage, are made in a very special technique. I photograph the painting, then use ink to add about seven layers of blue - this is a special chemical color that changes under the influence of light and makes the painting work.

Separately, at the General Staff of the Hermitage, I present the video project “Love is a power supreme”. Globally speaking, my entire exhibition was created in the shape of a butterfly: if the works in the Winter Palace are its wings, then the video in the General Staff building is its body. Thanks to this, I want to combine the building of the “new” Hermitage, where the film will be shown, with the “old” one, where my paintings are exhibited. We plan to donate this film and several other works to the museum.

There is a lot of garbage in modern art, but there was a lot of garbage in Rubens’s time - where is the “garbage” now and where is Rubens?

“Knight of despair - warrior of beauty” - is this about you?

The title of the exhibition has its own romantic idea, which consists precisely in protecting the sensitivity and sensitivity that beauty contains within itself. On the other hand, this is also the image of a valiant knight who fights for good causes. But despair is more about me as an artist. Deep down, I always fear “defeat” or “failure.”

My family was not very rich. For my birthday, my father gave me small castles and fortresses. From my mother I received old lipsticks, which she no longer used, so that I could draw. It seems to me that my romantic soul and desire to always create something of my own grew out of childhood. This is partly why the definition of me as a “knight” appeared. But I myself am an artist who believes in hope, no matter how it sounds.

What is your mission as a knight?

Popularize classical art. It is the basis of everything, although at times it seems more restrained than the modern one. If we look at history, classical art has always been under the supervision of someone, be it the church or the monarchy. It’s a paradox, but at the same time it – art – played with them, limited itself.

In general, there is only one art in the world - good. It doesn't matter whether it's classic or modern, there are no boundaries between them. Therefore, it is important to teach people to recognize classical art so that they can better understand modern art. Of course, I do not deny that the latter now has a lot of garbage, but, listen, in the time of Rubens there was a lot of garbage - but where is this garbage now and where is Rubens!?

The other day we visited the sensational exhibition of the Belgian artist Yana Fabra entitled " Jan Fabre: Knight of despair - warrior of beauty" And the first thing I would like to say about this is what is all the fuss about? Well, armor made from insect shells, well, pictures written in blood, well, stuffed animals. There is absolutely nothing criminal, harsh, or anti-aesthetic in all this (although the grannies keeping order in the halls Hermitage, judging by their faces, they have a different opinion).

One of the ardent animal defenders said something like, “I went to the exhibition and left in horror - there were dead animals there!” The question arises: why is no one horrified by the corpses of animals in zoological research?
uzee? Animal corpses displayed in a special place are normal, but stuffed animals among paintings are a shame. And after all, these are not sculptures from human bodies. Gunther von Hagens, which can really shock. By the way, horses in armor exhibited in the knights' hall Hermitage, animal rights activists and moral advocates also do not cause indignation. However, the scandal surrounding the exhibition played into the hands of the Hermitage and Fabre, as it caused a stir among tourists. So we became interested in looking at Fabre’s works precisely because of the hype around them.

Jan Fabre is one of the most famous contemporary artists. His grandfather was a famous French entomologist, which obviously influenced Fabre's work - insect parts and stuffed animals are the most common material in his work. In addition, the artist is known for his paintings written in blood, as well as drawings made with a ballpoint pen.

Fabre exhibition in Hermitage interesting because it is included in the permanent exhibition of the museum, and the artist’s works seem to enter into dialogue with classical works art. For example, next to the still lifes of Flemish painters Frans Snyders And Paul de Vos, which depict killed game, placed Fabre's stuffed animals being eaten by skulls. Next to the painting Jacob Jordaens“The Bean King”, depicting a feast, hangs Fabre’s work “After the King’s Feast”, made entirely from the elytra of golden beans.

By the way, these pictures Fabre insect shells are no less impressive than stuffed animals. And most of all, perhaps, we were impressed by the installation “I Let Myself Expire”, which is a silicon cop
the image of the artist himself, who seems to crash into a reproduction of the painting Rogier van der Weyden.

It would be hard to call Jan Fabre just an artist. One of the most prominent Flemings on the contemporary art scene, over the past few decades he has worked in almost all areas of art. Fabre held his first exhibition in 1978, showing drawings made with his own blood. In 1980 he began staging plays, and by 1986 he founded his own theater company Troubleyn. Today the name of the Flemish is known far beyond the borders of his native Belgium. Fabre became the first artist whose works were exhibited at the Louvre during his lifetime (this was in 2008), and in 2015 he conducted an experiment on actors and spectators, setting up a Festspiele 24-hour performance "Mount Olympus".

Fabre calls himself a continuer of the traditions of Flemish art and “a gnome born in the land of giants,” referring to his great “teachers” - Peter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens. In Antwerp, where the master was born, lives and works, his father took him to Rubens’ house, where young Fabre copied the paintings of the famous painter. And his grandfather, the famous entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, went to the zoo, where the boy drew animals and insects, which later became one of the main themes of his work.

Insects became for Fabre not only an object of artistic study, but also a working material. In 2002, the Belgian Queen Paola approached the artist with a request to integrate contemporary art into the interior design of the palace. This is how one of the artist’s masterpieces appeared - "Sky of Delight". Fabre veneered the ceiling and one of the antique chandeliers of the Mirror Room Royal Palace, using almost 1.5 million scarab beetle shells. The material for the artist’s work was and continues to be brought from Thailand, where beetles are eaten and their shells are preserved for decorative purposes.

Fabre's works can be found in many in public places Belgium. In Brussels Museum ancient art , for example, a few years ago his work appeared "Blue Hour", which occupied four walls above the Royal Staircase. Four photographic canvases painted with blue ballpoint pens Bic- another favorite instrument of Fabre - cost €350 thousand, which was paid by a philanthropist who wished not to give his name. On the canvases the artist depicted the eyes of four central creatures in his work - a beetle, a butterfly, a woman and an owl.

Fabre’s sculpture managed to “penetrate” even the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. Its rector had been looking for work for the temple for four years. Moreover, before this, the cathedral had not been acquired for more than a century works of art. In the end, the choice fell on the sculpture of Jan Fabre "The Man Who Bears the Cross", which the abbot saw in one of art galleries. For Fabre himself, this is a real source of pride. Firstly, his sculpture became the first piece of modern art inside this temple. Secondly, the artist turned out to be the first master after Rubens whose work was bought by the Antwerp Cathedral. And thirdly, for Fabre himself it was an attempt to connect two principles within himself - the religion of his deeply believing Catholic mother and the atheism of his communist father.

IN Hermitage Jan Fabre is bringing a retrospective of two hundred objects, which will last until April 9, 2017. It will stretch across the Winter Palace and move to the General Staff building - the artist’s works will be introduced into the main exhibition. Preparation for this lasted for three years. “The Jan Fabre exhibition is part of the program Hermitage 20/21, in which we show important contemporary artists,” said "RBC Style" curator of the exhibition, head of the contemporary art department Hermitage Dmitry Ozerkov. — As a rule, we organize exhibitions in such a way that the authors build a dialogue with the classical works on display. IN Hermitage there is a collection of art from Flanders - both medieval and Golden Age masters, for example, Jordaens and Rubens. And Fabre’s project is focused on dialogue with the Flemings: in the same halls where their paintings from the permanent exhibition have been hanging for hundreds of years, Jan’s works will be displayed, inspired by these works and talking about the same topics - carnival, money, high art- a new language."

The artist created some of the works specifically for the exhibition in St. Petersburg. “Even before the start of the exhibition, he made a video performance, which became the semantic basis of the entire project: in the video, Fabre walks through the halls where his works will be housed in the future, and bows before the masterpieces of the past,” Ozerkov noted. “Also, a series of large-scale reliefs from Carrara marble were made especially for the exhibition, where Fabre depicts the kings of Flanders. In addition, the artist created drawings and sculptures from beetle shells on the themes of fidelity, symbols, and death.”

Alexey Kostromin

Through the halls Hermitage in the summer of 2016, Fabre not only walked, but did it in the armor of a medieval knight. And the exhibition was called . “It is believed that modern artists deny the old masters and oppose themselves to them. In Russia, the idea of great classical art and modern authors who “ruin everything” is especially developed. Fabre's project is about how the author of our days, on the contrary, bows before the masterpieces of the past. "Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty" is an artist who dresses in armor and stands up for the old masters. Ian’s exhibition is about how modern and classical art unite to stand together against barbarism,” explained Dmitry Ozerkov.

“The work took three trucks to travel from Antwerp to St. Petersburg in a week, and their installation in the halls Hermitage will take three times longer,” said “ RBC Style" assistant curator Anastasia Chaladze. “We work with the whole department, Fabre himself and his four assistants. The artist himself directs some aspects and builds the exhibition. Some of the work turned out to be too heavy and large for old building, when installing them you need to be very careful and use specially designed podiums.”

Two weeks before the start of the exhibition, trucks with large boxes continue to arrive on Millionnaya Street - through the entrance to the building New Hermitage, decorated with Atlantean figures, Fabre's work slowly moves several people inside at once. And in the halls—knightly and with Flemish painting—several of Fabre’s exhibits are installed and available to the public even before the opening: in the display cases opposite medieval armor and swords, for example, lie their more modern analogues, made by the Belgian from the shells of beetles shimmering with all colors. In another room, his sculptures face the paintings of Franz Snyders: here Fabre uses fragments of a human skeleton, a stuffed swan and a peacock made from beetles. The story continues in the hall with the Dutch art XVII century, only this time with dinosaur skeletons and parrots.

Alexey Kostromin

When Fabre's works had already been delivered to Hermitage, the museum’s contemporary art department “has issued a cry” to find old lathes, sewing and printing machines for the artist’s installation "Umbraculum". Moreover, it was specified that the rustier they are, the better.

On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, Jan Fabre personally spoke "RBC Style" about the animal in man, taboo topics in creativity and naked flesh on Rubens's canvases.

Valery Zubarov

— Jan, in your work you often use unusual materials, for example, beetle shells. They can be seen on the ceiling and chandelier in the Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace in Brussels. How did this material appear in your artistic arsenal?

— When I was a child, my parents often took me to the zoo. There I was always inspired by animals: their reactions, behavior. Since childhood, I have drawn them along with people. I think insects - these little creatures - are very smart. They represent the memory of our past, because they are the most ancient creatures on earth. And, of course, many animals are symbols. Previously, they denoted professions and guilds. For example, in the painting by David Teniers the Younger "Group portrait of members of the shooting guild in Antwerp" that hangs in Hermitage, we see representatives of ancient guilds and each has its own “animal” emblem.

— Your Self-Portrait series “Chapter I - XVIII” was exhibited at the Museum of Ancient Art in Brussels. You portrayed yourself in different periods life, but with the obligatory attributes of the animal world - horns or donkey ears. Was this an attempt to find the animal in man?

— I think that people are animals. IN in a positive sense! Today we cannot imagine our life without computers. But look at the dolphins. For millions of years they have been swimming at indescribable distances from each other and communicating using echography. And they are more advanced than our computers. So we can learn a lot from them.

— You say you are learning about your body and what is inside it. Is using your own blood to create works also one of the stages of self-knowledge?

— I was eighteen when I first painted a picture with blood. And this should be looked at as a Flemish tradition. Already several centuries ago, artists mixed human blood with animal blood to Brown color was more expressive. They also crushed human bones to make the whites more shiny. Flemish artists were alchemists and founders of this kind of painting. Therefore, my “bloody” paintings should be perceived in the traditions Flemish painting. And of course, in dialogue with Christ. Blood is a very important substance. It is she who makes us so beautiful and at the same time so vulnerable.

Hermitage, written more frankly than most modern works. Remember, one of the main themes of Rubens’s work is human flesh. He admired her beauty. But this is not a provocation, this is classical art. When I was young, I went to New York and met Andy Warhol there several times. And when he returned home, he boasted that he had met him. 400 years ago Rubens was Warhol.

It probably happens that one generation is open to everything, and the next is afraid of courage. It's very important to be proud human body, to see both his power and his vulnerability. How can you not support art that reveals this?

Installation of the Jan Fabre exhibition in the General Staff Building of the Hermitage

Alexey Kostromin

— You are talking about dialogue with the viewer, and in Russia there are problems with it.

— Yes, but they also exist in Europe. I am a supporter of the idea of openness to everything. For me, being an artist means celebrating life in all its forms. And do it with respect for everyone and for the art itself.

— Your exhibition, which opens on October 22 at the Hermitage, is called “Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty.” How did this image come about and what does it mean to you?

— Sometimes I call myself a beauty warrior. It's kind of a romantic idea. As a warrior, I must protect the vulnerability of beauty and the human race. And the “knight of despair” also fights for good. And in modern society warriors for me are Mandela and Gandhi. These are people who fought to make the world a better and more beautiful place.

On Friday, the Hermitage opens the exhibition “Jan Fabre: Knight of Despair - Warrior of Beauty” - a large retrospective of one of the most famous contemporary artists. Projects of similar scale (and the exhibition will use the halls of the Winter Palace, the New Hermitage and the General Staff Building) have not yet been awarded to any contemporary author. There are several reasons why the museum grants Fabre special rights, but the main one lies in his reverent attitude towards classical art, in dialogue with which he builds most of his installations.

Fabre also has experience in projects similar to the Hermitage. Eight years ago, he already did something similar in the Louvre: in the hall of ceremonial portraits he laid out tombstones, among which a giant worm with a human head was crawling, in another he exhibited an iron bed and a coffin, inlaid with iridescent gold beetles, there were stuffed animals, and gilded sculpture and drawings. Fabre is the grandson of the famous French entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre, whom Victor Hugo called the “Homer of the insects.” It is important to keep this in mind when you see shells, skeletons, horns and dead dogs, the stuffed ones of which he often uses, in order to understand that all these objects that shock the unprepared viewer are not an end in themselves, but a natural way of understanding reality for a person who has been surrounded by collections since childhood preserved creatures in flasks.

Stuffed animals will inevitably become the most talked about exhibits. For example, Fabre places several works from the “Skulls” series in the Snyders room next to his still lifes, replete with game, fish, vegetables and fruit, as if hinting at the decay that lies behind the tables laden with food. But stuffed animals are only a small part of what will be shown in the Hermitage as part of the artist’s exhibition.

The Village compiled short guide on the work of Fabre and asked assistant curator Anastasia Chaladze to comment on individual works.

Science and art

In 2011, at the Venice Biennale, Fabre presented a replica of Michelangelo's Pietà, in which the figure of Death holds the artist's body in his lap with a human brain in his hands. The exhibition then caused a lot of noise: someone did not like the borrowing of the canonical Christian image, someone saw in the work only an attempt to shock the public. In reality, the idea should be explained by the genuine delight that Fabre evokes in the ghost of a medieval artist-scientist. At the same time, given that since the time of da Vinci, science has stepped forward and really contributes to scientific progress modern authors they cannot, Fabre has only one thing left to do - to idealize and romanticize the image of a person experiencing the world.

"The Man Who Measures the Clouds" (1998)

a comment Anastasia Chaladze:

“This is the first work that the viewer sees if they begin to get acquainted with the exhibition from the Winter Palace: the sculpture meets people in the courtyard, right behind the central gate. In my opinion, this image perfectly reveals Fabre as a sentimental person and artist. We are accustomed to the fact that modern authors often turn to political and social spheres life of society, and Fabre remains a romantic: to some, the image of a man measuring clouds with a ruler may seem stupid, but for him this hero is a symbol of service to his idea and dream.”

Blood

One of Fabre's first exhibitions, which he showed in 1978, was called “My Body, My Blood, My Landscape” and consisted of paintings painted in blood. The idea is to use own body for the work was no longer new, however, perhaps it was Fabre who was the first to manage to transfer experience from the plane of artistic experiment to the area of conscious expression, not just hinting at his own exclusivity, but also emphasizing the sacrificial nature of art. Besides early works blood, the modern installation “I Let Myself Bleed” was brought to the Hermitage - a hyper-realistic silicone self-portrait mannequin that stands with its nose buried in a reproduction of Rogier van der Weyden’s painting “Portrait of a Tournament Judge”.

"I Let Myself Bleed" (2007)

a comment Anastasia Chaladze:

"It's a metaphor for invasion contemporary artist in art history. On the one hand, the result is sad: a nosebleed is an illustration of the defeat of a modern artist before the masters of the past. On the other hand, the installation will be placed between two polychrome portals depicting scenes from the life of Christ, and this gives the whole composition new meaning, hinting that Fabre sees himself as a Savior from the world of art. This is a rather bold statement, but there is nothing fundamentally new in it: since the Middle Ages, it has been customary for artists to suffer torment in order to experience the states of sacred history, giving up wealth and entertainment in order to be closer to the state of the characters they depicted in their paintings."

Mosaics from beetle shells

One of the most famous technicians Fabra is a mosaic that he lays out from the iridescent shells of gold beetles. He used them to lay out ceilings and chandeliers royal palace in Brussels and countless more compact installations and sculptures. Zhukov Fabre quite sincerely considers them to be almost the most perfect living creatures and admires the natural logic that was able to so simply and effectively protect these very fragile creatures from dangers.

"After the King's Feast"
(2016)

a comment ANASTASIA CHALADZE:

“Vanitas is a phenomenon that was very popular in the 17th century, it is such a negative, negative perception of entertainment, a hint that the joys of life are empty and you need to think about some more important things. Hanging in the hall famous painting Jacob Jordaens' "The Bean King" with an image of a feast, and next to it is Fabre's work "After the King's Feast", which is not a direct commentary, but in a sense shows what happens after the holiday. We see here emptiness, bones and flies gathered for carrion, and in the midst of this a lonely dog who remained faithful to who knows what.”

Drawings with Bic ballpoint pen

Another one unusual technique in Fabre's collection - drawings that he makes using simple ballpoint pens Bic. The most famous work in this technique - a giant panel “Blue Hour” from the collection of the Royal art museum Belgium. For the Hermitage, the artist painted a special series of replicas of Rubens’ works, which will hang in the same room with the originals during the exhibition. Their value is especially high since Rubens plays in Fabre's fate special role. Actually, it was after visiting Rubens’ house in Antwerp as a child that Fabre, as he admitted, became interested in art.