Jan Fabre: The Quiet Source

Curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio and Katerina Koskina, the exhibition “The Quiet Source” presents a dialogue between Renaissance painting and contemporary sculpture. Jan Fabre is the first living artist invited to intervene within the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, home to Tintoretto’s monumental pictorial cycle. From 9 May to 22 November 2026, the project features three silicon bronze sculptures installed along the building’s central axis, creating a conceptual and spatial interaction with Tintoretto’s masterpieces. Both artists share an investigation into light, spirituality, and the human experience.

The sculptures — “The Man Who Holds the Sword (Oath of My Father)”, “The Artist as a Stray Dog in His Basket”, and “The Man Who Cuts the Grass” — form a symbolic spine through the architecture, functioning as a metaphorical “Tree of Life”. This trilogy focuses on family, memory, and personal mythology, incorporating the artist’s own body alongside the faces of his father and late brother. The works evoke knightly archetypes, the iconography of Saint Roch, and folk rituals to ward off evil. By allowing visitors to sit on the final sculpture, the exhibition introduces a performative dimension that transforms the spectator’s relationship with the work, meditating on existence, vulnerability, and the boundaries between life and death.