Lancelot（2004），Performance Film，8’ 17”，Courtesy of the artist

Widely considered to be one of the most significant artists based in Belgium today, Jan Fabre explores the human body’s fragility and defence mechanisms, to a broader survey questioning how they would survive in the future.

Set against a cold and dark castle, Lancelot is a performance film that sees the artist battle against himself in front of the camera for five hours, weighed down in heavy armour. In this narrative plot of the Flemish saga, the marvellous sculptures created by Fabre seemingly come to life through the magical intersecting of scarab beetles reverberating in the light.

Fabre has always been captivated by the knight’s figures and his work contains many references to medieval or neo-gothic symbols, such as the Flemish Warrior. Here, the knight figure embraces another metaphor: the knight wears a harness, as the scarab beetle carries its skeleton. Fabre is searching for a new skin for humans—an external skeleton that can serve as a harness to protect the fragile human being against the world.