Jan Fabre’s Letter
The anarchy of love and beauty is connected.
For more than forty years, I told my actors and dancers what beauty meant to me:
“Beauty is a consilience between aesthetic principles and ethical values.
Without ethical values beauty would only be make-up.”
For each new theatre creation, I did international auditions in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam,
Madrid… and in Antwerp.
I saw an average of about 500 dancers and actors for each production.
It is not easy to get a place in the Troubleyn company.
So the ladies, the civil party in the case, are all strong personalities, specific characters with a lot of talent, otherwise they would never have performed in any of my theatre or dance productions.
The actors and dancers are the heartbeat and splendour of my performances.
As a theatre artist, I am nothing without them. My theatre and dance creations are based on and inspired by their specific talents, characters, personalities and physical characteristics.
Am I a radical and groundbreaking artist?
Yes, I am.
Do I have too much passion and energy?
Yes.
Am I perhaps too driven and emotional when working with actors and dancers?
Yes.
On the artistic level, do I aim high for myself and for the actor and dancers?
Yes.
For more than forty years, my work researched the body, the inside and the outside of the human body. The skeleton, organs, skin, and body fluids were the themes of many works of art, theatre, and theatre texts.
I always talked openly with all artistic collaborators about the human body and specifically about their bodies, the bodies of the collaborating actors and dancers. This was a normal part of the daily work process.
I always guided my actors and dancers towards critical independence. So that at the end of a working process they became their own director or choreographer.
During each working process of a new creation, I said countless times to the performers:
“teach me”. I always told them, “I am a blind man and you will guide me to the right place.”
And for every performance that started, I repeated the credo “when you make mistakes, make them in style”. As a metaphor for the freedom the actors and dancers could take, that there were no mistakes, they had to play as if they made everything up on the spot.
I have always chosen to work with actors and dancers as models for my photo projects and visual artworks because I saw them working so freely and unforced on my stage. I always felt that they possessed the same freedom and openness as models.
I was clearly, and I am still, a Romantic soul. (Romanticism as defined by the great writer and thinker Octavio Paz. Romanticism is the real avant-garde. There is no difference between the work and the life of the artist.)
I have always thought of myself as an empathetic artist, but apparently, I am mistaken or don’t know myself well enough.
I have never wanted to hurt any actors or dancers.
I sincerely apologise to anyone who feels hurt, to anyone who has felt bad because of me.
I wish you much anarchy of love and beauty.
Most people live in a society based on the prescribed ideas of others that dictate the delusion of the time in which they live. Choosing this is easy. When you choose solitude and when you choose to live according to your own ideas, it is not easy because you are alone.
The most difficult and the truest position, the individual who does not blindly accept the prescribed ideas that are fashionable in society, but instead maintains the independence of their own critical thinking. It is a position I wish everyone to be in.
Since the ‘open letter’, we – the Troubleyn company -have installed an extensive integrity policy. For every breath, detail, and improvisation of a working process, permission is asked, even for the final text, direction and choreography, and the finished performance.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank the many actors, dancers, and other artistic collaborators who have supported me over the past three years and six months with their love and testimonies, without counting on getting a role in a theatre or dance production.
I sign as always,
Your servant of beauty,
Jan Fabre
Antwerp, 30 March 2022
Jan Fabre’s Letter
©ReFrame Platform - All rights reserved
Jan Fabre’s Letter
The anarchy of love and beauty is connected.
For more than forty years, I told my actors and dancers what beauty meant to me:
“Beauty is a consilience between aesthetic principles and ethical values.
Without ethical values beauty would only be make-up.”
For each new theatre creation, I did international auditions in Paris, Rome, Amsterdam,
Madrid… and in Antwerp.
I saw an average of about 500 dancers and actors for each production.
It is not easy to get a place in the Troubleyn company.
So the ladies, the civil party in the case, are all strong personalities, specific characters with a lot of talent, otherwise they would never have performed in any of my theatre or dance productions.
The actors and dancers are the heartbeat and splendour of my performances.
As a theatre artist, I am nothing without them. My theatre and dance creations are based on and inspired by their specific talents, characters, personalities and physical characteristics.
Am I a radical and groundbreaking artist?
Yes, I am.
Do I have too much passion and energy?
Yes.
Am I perhaps too driven and emotional when working with actors and dancers?
Yes.
On the artistic level, do I aim high for myself and for the actor and dancers?
Yes.
For more than forty years, my work researched the body, the inside and the outside of the human body. The skeleton, organs, skin, and body fluids were the themes of many works of art, theatre, and theatre texts.
I always talked openly with all artistic collaborators about the human body and specifically about their bodies, the bodies of the collaborating actors and dancers. This was a normal part of the daily work process.
I always guided my actors and dancers towards critical independence. So that at the end of a working process they became their own director or choreographer.
During each working process of a new creation, I said countless times to the performers:
“teach me”. I always told them, “I am a blind man and you will guide me to the right place.”
And for every performance that started, I repeated the credo “when you make mistakes, make them in style”. As a metaphor for the freedom the actors and dancers could take, that there were no mistakes, they had to play as if they made everything up on the spot.
I have always chosen to work with actors and dancers as models for my photo projects and visual artworks because I saw them working so freely and unforced on my stage. I always felt that they possessed the same freedom and openness as models.
I was clearly, and I am still, a Romantic soul. (Romanticism as defined by the great writer and thinker Octavio Paz. Romanticism is the real avant-garde. There is no difference between the work and the life of the artist.)
I have always thought of myself as an empathetic artist, but apparently, I am mistaken or don’t know myself well enough.
I have never wanted to hurt any actors or dancers.
I sincerely apologise to anyone who feels hurt, to anyone who has felt bad because of me.
I wish you much anarchy of love and beauty.
Most people live in a society based on the prescribed ideas of others that dictate the delusion of the time in which they live. Choosing this is easy. When you choose solitude and when you choose to live according to your own ideas, it is not easy because you are alone.
The most difficult and the truest position, the individual who does not blindly accept the prescribed ideas that are fashionable in society, but instead maintains the independence of their own critical thinking. It is a position I wish everyone to be in.
Since the ‘open letter’, we – the Troubleyn company -have installed an extensive integrity policy. For every breath, detail, and improvisation of a working process, permission is asked, even for the final text, direction and choreography, and the finished performance.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank the many actors, dancers, and other artistic collaborators who have supported me over the past three years and six months with their love and testimonies, without counting on getting a role in a theatre or dance production.
I sign as always,
Your servant of beauty,
Jan Fabre
Antwerp, 30 March 2022
© Reframe Platform - all right reserved