Jan Fabre is a Belgian artist working in very different domains: theatre, film, drawing, opera, dance. From the very beginning of his career he has been fascinated with the body. In his hands the body transforms in many ways: the body becomes a machine, an insect, a thing, a warrior. In the oven of his imagination, Fabre causes the body to melt, solidify, burn, evaporate. He wants his actors to be like white-hot steel. Or cold as ice. For Fabre, the body is matter that has to be processed. It carries death, coincidence and life inside. Especially life. Lust for life.

In this lecture we will deal with the many transformations of the body in the work of Jan Fabre, illustrated with various excerpts from his theatre carreer.