The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Wednesday December 9th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Wednesday December 9th — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Wednesday December 9th — —

30 Years / 7 Rooms by Jan Fabre

Through the insightful feature by our friends over at yatzer, we couldn’t but notice the incredible retrospective on one of the most important contemporary multidisciplinary artists from Belgium; Jan Fabre. Thirty years ago him and gallery holder Mark Deweer started an impressive collaboration, which is translated into the exhibition ’30 Years / 7 Rooms’, celebrating these thirty years of collaboration for another two weeks at Deweer Gallery in Otegem, Belgium. It extends over all the exhibition spaces of the gallery and is divided into seven themed rooms, built especially for the occasion. ’30 Years / 7 Rooms’, in this way, presents a broad overview of the first historic objects, drawings, sculptures and installations, up to the latest works. The exhibition offers an exceptional opportunity to become acquainted with the most important groups of works in the oeuvre of Jan Fabre in a unique dramaturgy, created especially by the artist. A must visit!

Out of the seven rooms, which all have their unique quality, we are particularly drawn to Room II – The Hour Blue. It is one of the most famous groups of works in Jan Fabre’s oeuvre, dating roughly between 1977 and 1991. Under the theme of the Hour Blue, the hour of twilight and the transition between night and day, Fabre, using a blue Bic ballpoint pen, expresses his views on the art of drawing. Fabre emancipates the drawing as such; he as it were reinvents the medium. Large blue drawings on paper or canvas, wooden shrines coloured entirely blue and Bic-coloured photos are the plastic expressions of Fabre’s vision on the transformations from man into animal and vice versa and from micro into macro energy fields and vice versa.

The second room which impressed us thoroughly is Room VII – A meeting / Vstrecha, which is based on Jan Fabre late nineties collaboration with the Ukrainian artist Ilya Kabakov. It features a unique and historic collaboration that was initiated by Mark Deweer in the second half of 1995. Drawings and sculptures by Fabre in collaboration with Kabakov and the movie which Fabre and Kabakov made together are presented. With special thanks to the lenders of the drawings.

Also included is the imagery of another remarkable new project by Jan Fabre which is on display permanently at the Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal in Antwerp named ‘The Man who Bears the Cross’ which was revealed this year, shot by photographer Attilio Maranzano.

The exhibition will run until the 20th of December at Deweer Gallery, located at Tiegemstraat 6a, Otegem in Belgium.  Opened Wednesday – Friday 14:00 until 18:00, Sunday 14:00 until 18:00 and on appointment.

For the whole feature on yatzer see here

For more information on the exhibition see here