‘When there is love, there is life’
Jan Fabre
Love floats through the sky and blossoms on earth; love drives oceans and flows with the tides; love divides and shapes itself within our cells. Love is the cradle of life. Love is our natural habitat and gives generously. It is a guiding thread in Jan Fabre's oeuvre; he materialises “love as the power supreme”.
Jan Fabre. La materialización del amor is Jan Fabre's first exhibition at NF/ NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ Galería in Madrid. It features sculptural creations made from red Mediterranean coral sourced from the Bay of Naples and a series of drawings produced with his own blood, reflecting on his own blood, his son, Django Gennaro Fabre. During the opening, we will witness Jan Fabre in action as a “pelican man.” in Soy un hombre pelícano. In presenting this exhibition, NF/ NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ reaffirms its commitment to an approach that is both disciplinarily enriching and deeply connective, creating a resonant context for Fabre’s exploration of love and sacrifice. The exhibition and performance will be further framed by readings from the artist's ‘Night Diaries’, alongside art-historical and aesthetic-philosophical discussions.
The colour of love is red. The colour of blood is red. Blood is, and becomes, love. Blood flows toward life and pours out unto death. Like an eternal circuit, blood is both vital and fatal, the ultimate redemption. It is the classical duality of Eros and Thanatos that runs as an essential narrative throughout all Greek myths. Consider the origin of coral, which Ovid describes in his ‘Metamorphoses’: the blood of the decapitated Gorgon, Medusa, flowed into the sea and crystallized into stone. From mythic transformation to personal ritual, this symbolism continues in Fabre’s work. It is through his own blood that the artist brings forth the echoes of his unborn son, creating a testament to genetic genesis.
According to a Christian medieval legend, pelicans feed their young with their own blood. In this story, the pelican mother pierces her skin in times of scarcity to nourish and protect the next generation. Evolutionary theory has shown that this is biologically impossible and that the bird’s natural behaviour was misinterpreted. However, because the story aligned perfectly with religious ideas about Christ’s sacrifice and redemption at the time, the waterbird became the ultimate symbol of altruism, love, and human care. To this day, the pelican also serves as a symbol for blood donation; the act of giving blood to sustain life. ‘The giving of love (my education)’ writes Jan Fabre on one of his blood drawings from the series ‘My son, Django’. The precise nature of the ritual sacrifice Fabre will enact during his performance in Madrid is currently a mystery, but the title ‘Soy un hombre pelícano (I am a pelican man)’ already hints at a gesture of universal love and compassion.
This interplay of sacrifice, symbolism, and transformation extends into Fabre’s sculptural practice and is reflected in the exhibition, which includes miniature models of his four permanent works in the chapel of Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples. This monumental church is a cultural landmark and is home to Caravaggio’s world-renowned masterpiece ‘The Seven Works of Mercy’. Jan Fabre was invited by the same seven noble families who once commissioned Caravaggio. Drawing inspiration from the soul of this extraordinary art collection, he created coral sculptures in which the heart transforms and merges into forms that echo the details and themes found in the chapel’s paintings.
The exhibition invitation features a striking image: a coral skull fused with a teapot. ‘The Teapot of Death’ is both familiar and strange. The teapot, an everyday object, evokes comfort, warmth, and hospitality - notions rarely associated with death. Is Jan Fabre inviting death to tea? Perhaps this poetic gesture gently reminds us that death is never far away, that it is not an abstract concept but one that permeates even the most ordinary objects. As Jan Fabre thematises in his oeuvre; let us celebrate life through death, because without death there is no life. We carry death with us every day, our skeleton. His work suggests a loving encounter, a reconciliation between between vitality and mortality, where creation and dissolution are held in a perpetual balancing act. A reconciliation that allows transformation.
Through coral sculptures, blood drawings, and performance, Jan Fabre weaves together personal history, mythological reference, and ritual gesture. At the core of this exhibition lies the idea of blood as both a biological substance and a symbolic medium, one that circulates between life and death, love and sacrifice, individual and collective experience. By bringing these threads into dialogue, the exhibition situates Fabre’s practice within a wider reflection on the materialisation of love as a transformative force. To be loved is to be changed forever.
‘Art is like love, it always leads to reconciliation.’
Jan Fabre
NF/NIEVES FERNÁNDEZ
Blanca de Navarra 12
28010 Madrid
Opening November 8 2025
Until December 15 2025
More Info: https://nfgaleria.com/en/exposicion/jan-fabre-la-materializacion-del-amor-2/
