Despite calls to remove sculptures by Belgian artist Jan Fabre from the Flemish Parliament following a conviction for sexual assault, the art installation will remain, albeit with a note of explanation.
A judge delivered an 18-month suspended prison sentence to Fabre last week for violence, bullying and sexual harassment at work, and the sexual assault of a woman. Among other things, Fabre was said to have pressured dancers in his company into nude photoshoots featuring humiliating poses “with no artistic value,” during which he assaulted them.
The statues in the Flemish parliament are of headless women’s bodies hanging from the ceiling.
“You have to see a work of art separately from the artist,” Parliament Speaker Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) told VRT.
‘Explanation’ will be added to installation
A life-sized statue that Fabre made of himself was already removed from the Antwerp art centre when allegations of sexual abuse first became public in great numbers.
But the Flemish Parliament will keep its Fabre installation featuring the female form in place and its art committee has been instructed to “provide an interpretation of the work of art and the artist.”
This explanation will be given on a sign next to the work and will also be explained orally by guides during visitor tours.
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“Of course what Jan Fabre did is unacceptable and we condemn it, but that says nothing about this work of art,” Homans said.
The Vooruit party had called for the removal of the installation, saying “to leave the work of art hanging would be a strange signal to send to the many Flemish people and schoolchildren who come to visit the parliament.”
Finding a compromise for art in public spaces
Vooruit Leader Hannelore Goeman, along with others in the party, supports the compromise of keeping the art but adding an explanation.
“For us it is essential that someone like Jan Fabre doesn't just get away with it, that people who see his work know what he has done,” Goeman said.
“We think that is important in recognition of the suffering that Fabre inflicted on all those women.”
Works of art by Fabre also remain elsewhere: ‘The man who measures the clouds’ now sits on the roof of the SMAK museum in Ghent, ‘The man carrying the cross’ is in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp and ‘Searching for Utopia’ remains in Nieuwpoort.
A ceiling in the Royal Palace in Brussels is covered with beetle wing cases as part of Fabre’s installation ‘Heaven of Delight.’ This will also not be removed, but rather include an explanation for visitors when the room opens to the public.
