23/05/2025
OPENING SOON | JAN FABRE
Mucciaccia Gallery London is pleased to announce Jan Fabre: The Artist as a Street Dog, a new one-night-only performance and installation by internationally acclaimed artist Jan Fabre (b. 1958).
Fabre returns to a recurring and emblematic figure in his oeuvre: the stray dog—a symbol of resilience, marginality, and defiance. Referencing earlier works such as Me as an Aggressive German Sheepdog (with Blue Tongue) (1979), My Movements Are Alone Like Streetdogs (2004), The Carnival of the Dead Streetdogs (2006) and The Catacombs of the Dead Street Dogs (2009), Fabre once again inhabits the position of the outsider to examine themes of artistic survival, ritual, and resistance.
With his tongue painted blue in Bic ink, Fabre reactivates a personal mythology that speaks to his complex relationship with artistic legitimacy. Installed within a landscape of bones, butter, and carnival debris, the work draws on the vanitas tradition to explore the uneasy convergence of celebration and decay.
Jan Fabre: The Artist as a Street Dog
Curated by Pilar Seivane ( )
PV: Saturday 31 May 2025, 6 to 8 pm
2 June – 4 July 2025
Mucciaccia Gallery
21 Dering St., W1S 1AL, London, UK
For press inquiries, to request a private view, or for further information, please contact: [email protected]
Image: Jan Fabre, The Catacombs of the Dead Street Dogs (2009). Mixed media installation, various dimensions. Exhibition view at Palazzo Riso, Palermo, 2009. PH: Fabio Sgroi.
Disclaimer: All skeletal remains used in this artwork were ethically sourced from naturally deceased stray dogs. These remains were obtained in accordance with local and international ethical standards, with a commitment to dignity, respect, and legal compliance. No animals were harmed or killed for the purpose of this work. The installation serves as a tribute to these often-forgotten lives, reflecting on abandonment, mortality, and the complex relationship between humans and animals.
