40-YEAR CELEBRATION OF TROUBLEYN / JAN FABRE

AT THE TROUBLEYN/LABORATORIUM
Pastorijstraat 23 2060 Antwerpen, Belgium

'The Poetry of Resistance 2026' marks forty years of Troubleyn / Jan Fabre with a bold anniversary program shaped by vulnerability and transformation. It brings together works where sensitivity turns to strength, creativity becomes a catalyst, and unexpected beauty breaks through the cracks, while poetic tributes echo our shared struggles and aspirations.

PROGRAM

 

I am a mistake is a theatre text written by Jan Fabre in 1988. It is a manifest that amounts almost to a profession of faith by the artist. The blunt confession 'I am a mistake' is like a mantra that repeats and divides.

Jan Fabre, the visionary visual artist and theater creator, teams up with his Troubleyn company of 11 brilliant actors and dancers to present HARAKIRI (A political and incorrect performance) - a daring new dance and theater creation. A ‘razorblade’ performance, designed to simultaneously wound and amuse, it pushes the boundaries of performance art and provokes thought on the world we live in today.

The character played by Stella Höttler is lost and confused in this changing world. Therefore, she apologizes herself for everything—for how she looks, for how she behaves, for what she says … She tries to find her way in the world of self-censorship...

La poésie de la résistance / The Poetry of Resistance is a powerful and engaging theatre text, written by Jan Fabre in 2024, that celebrates the strength of art, poetry, and resistance against oppression. In a poetic and rhythmic manifesto, two performers present themselves as members of an artistic resistance movement, fighting non-violently against censorship, suppression, and conformity. 

« La vraie révolution sera mentale ou ne sera pas. »
(The true revolution will be mental, or it will not be.) — Antonin Artaud

Una tribù, ecco quello che sono | A Tribe, That Is Me (2004) is Jan Fabre’s poetic perspective on the work of theatre visionary Antonin Artaud, the 'founder' of the Théâtre de la Cruauté (1938). This cruelty is not physical, but spiritual—a call to return to raw, unfiltered truth.

The monologue details ’Simona the Stylite’ and her criminal plan to restore the healing and spiritual power of beauty.

Jan Fabre wrote I believe in the legend of love in the form of a letter from a man to his beloved. The outcome is a truly personal text, about loving and letting go.

AN 8 HOUR PERFORMANCE

The highest peak of Mount Olympus is called Mytikas. A Greek word for Nose. Because the gods live on that mountain, the Nose is the nose of all the gods.

A CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN
THE NATIONAL THEATER OF HUNGARY, TROUBLEYN/JAN FABRE
& THE BOZSIK YVETTE COMPANY

"Bodies trying to free themselves from physical limitations and taboos become liquid: they turn into blood, the body's fuel" – Jan Fabre

She was and she is, even is inspired by Duchamp’s artwork, The bride stripped bare by her bachelors, even (The Large Glass). Els Deceukelier plays a seductive bride situated in the twilight zone between reality and imagination...