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Item: Long Street of Images - Jan Fabre Street
1977
Performance, 00:50:00.
Materials:
Antwerp, Lange Beeldekensstraat
When he is nineteen years old Jan Fabre removes a street sign from the street where he grew up. He puts up a new sign, ‘Jan Fabrestraat’ (Jan Fabrestreet), making a name for himself in the history of the neighbourhood that means so much to him as a young man.
'Looking back on what I was doing as a young artist, I feel I was trying to engrave myself in the tradition, wanting to be part of history and maybe trying to get myself famous. (Chuckles.) I for example changed the street name of the street where I was living. The ‘Lange Beeldekensstraat’ was an old Flemish word for ‘Long Street of Images’ I took the street sign away and I made it Jan Fabrestraat (1977, No. 4). For example another action that I did in the same street was hanging over the sign of the Van Gogh house my own copper sign with the text ‘Here lives and works Jan Fabre’. Van Gogh had lived in Antwerp and was a student at the Royal Academy.' (source: Celant, G. Jan Fabre. Stigmata. Action & Performances 1976-2013. Skira, 2014, p.166)
