PARIS.- Following upon the successes of the first three editions of Counterpoint, the Louvre continues to pursue its policy of openness to contemporary art and living artists by extending an invitation this spring to Jan Fabre. Within the galleries devoted to the painted works of the Flemish, Dutch and
German Schools, visitors are encouraged to rediscover celebrated works by masters such as van Eyck, van der Weyden, Bosch, Metsys and Rubens through the eyes of this major artist of the contemporary scene.

After completing his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute for Decorative Arts in Antwerp, Jan Fabre launched his career in the late 1970s with provocative “actions” and “private performances”. A shining star of the Flemish new wave in the 1980s, he is above all a skilled draftsman, visual artist and designer, but also stages unusually free and unrestrained performance pieces, placing the body at the heart of his approach. He has participated in prestigious international exhibitions such as Documenta in Kassel as well as the Venice, Lyon, São Paolo, Valencia and Istanbul biennales. In 2006, the city of Antwerp played host to his exhibition Homo Faber, presented within the ancient art galleries of its Royal Museum of Fine Arts. His theater company Troubleyn, launched in 1986, frequently appears at leading venues in Europe, including the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the Avignon Festival, and most recently the Salzburg Festival, which saw the premiere of Requiem for a Metamorphosis.

The itinerary proposed by Jan Fabre through the museum’s collections may be perceived as a “mental drama” featuring the major elements of his own life work and those of the old masters. The artist seeks to connect his universe with the main themes running through the Louvre’s collections: death and resurrection, the vanities of human life, sacrifice, money, madness, carnival, battles, the artist’s studio. Some thirty works—ranging from drawings, sculptures, video and other installations to performance pieces captured on film—thus punctuate the itinerary imagined by the artist.