From September 24, 2025 to January 16, 2026, 21Gallery in Treviso is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Jan Fabre (Antwerp, 1958), a visionary artist and leading figure on the international contemporary scene. The exhibition, curated by Dimitri Ozerkov, bears the title Songs of the Canaries and Songs of the Gypsies, recalling the last two cycles of the artist’s production: Songs of the Canaries (A Tribute to Emiel Fabre and Robert Stroud) and Songs of the Gypsies (A Tribute to Django Reinhardt and Django Gennaro Fabre).
Fabre has constructed a unique language capable of interweaving art, philosophy, science, tradition and spirituality. In Treviso he presents a set of works that investigate the essential dimensions of existence: the fragility of life and the transformative capacity of art. The materials chosen-Carrara marble, Vantablack (the most intense black in existence) and pencil and tempera colors-become tools for exploring the dialogue between matter and spirit.
The first chapter, Songs of the Canaries, is a tribute to the vulnerability of the human condition, the pursuit of dreams and the desire to understand the sky and its mysteries. At the center is the monumental sculpture The Man Who Measures His Own Planet (2024): a figure climbing a ladder, stretching his arms upward as if to measure the immensity of the sky. The body echoes the features of the artist, while the face is that of his brother Emiel, who died prematurely and to whom the exhibition is dedicated. The project also pays tribute to Robert Stroud, known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz,” a self-taught ornithologist who specialized in the study of canaries during his imprisonment.
The second chapter, Songs of the Gypsies, fuses the universe of jazz with the artist’s personal experience in an interweaving of vulnerability and creation. At the center of the installation are three large Carrara marble sculptures depicting an enormous infant: Fabre’s son Django, portrayed at five and a half months old, whose name is a double homage to the gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.
“Fabre reworks ancient metaphors in ways that resonate with contemporary themes about the body, the soul and the nature of art. The artist continues to improvise on his themes, turning around a familiar phrase but always twisting it, making it new and universal,” the curator explains.
A volume published by Silvana Editoriale, edited by Melania Rossi and Giovanna Caterina de Feo, with critical contributions by Dimitri Ozerkov, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Melania Rossi and Floriana Conte, is available at the gallery.
Fabre was recently awarded two prestigious prizes by the international jury of the theater festival in Montenegro (FIAT - Festival Internacionalnog Alternativnog Teatra), as best performance and best director. In conjunction with the Treviso exhibition, the second edition of the Festival dedicated to the theatrical art of Jan Fabre, entitled Jan Fabre and Mino Bertoldo, will be held at the Out Off Theater in Milan from October 3-30, 2025: 40 Years of Poetry of Resistance, which this year will present six shows including two world premieres: La poésie de la résistance (Oct. 3, 4, 8) with Annabelle Chambon and Cédric Charron and A Tribe, That’s What I Am with Irene Urciuoli (Oct. 10, 11 and 22).
The exhibition is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Free admission.
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| Treviso, the last two cycles of Jan Fabre's production on display at 21Gallery |
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