Brussels (AFP)

The Belgian artist Jan Fabre, exhibited all over Europe, from Venice to Paris, was sent to court in Antwerp for "indecent assault" and "sexual harassment", announced Monday the public prosecutor's office in the Flemish city where he is established.

The accusations date back to September 2018, in the wake of the #metoo campaign.

About 20 former collaborators of his dance and performance company Troubleyn then complained in an open letter that they had been subjected to psychological pressure, "humiliation" and even sexual blackmail.

An investigation had been opened by the Auditorat du travail in Antwerp, a section of the prosecution service specializing in labor disputes.

The decision fell on Monday after almost three years of investigations: Jan Fabre will have to explain himself to the criminal court of these accusations which he has always strongly defended.

The 62-year-old artist is summoned to appear for "violence" and "sexual harassment at work" against "twelve employees", as well as "indecent assault", a statement from the 'Auditorat du travail, without specifying the identity of the alleged victims.

A first procedural hearing is scheduled in court on September 21.

It will set a timetable for the trial and will not necessarily involve an appearance of the person concerned.

At the same time choreographer, author, visual artist, theater director, Jan Fabre has had the reputation since the 1980s of being one of the most protean and avant-garde artists of his time.

He is also known for his art of provocation.

In 2012, he had to apologize following a performance showing a "cat throwing" in Antwerp which resulted in him being physically attacked.

His detractors accuse him of gratuitous provocation, for example for his pieces evoking blood and urine, or with a performance showing a masturbation competition ten years ago.

- "At home, never" -

In their text, published in September 2018 on the website of the Dutch-language magazine specializing in art rekto: verso, these former employees and trainees of Troubleyn denounced systematic attitudes of "harassment" on the part of the Flemish artist.

The twenty co-signers, mostly women, claimed that "humiliation was the daily bread" within the company.

They explained that Jan Fabre invited artists to his home under the pretext of visual art performances, and then attempted a "sexual approach".

# photo1

"I never intended to intimidate or hurt people psychologically or sexually", defended Jan Fabre at the time in a right of reply in the same publication.

"We are not forcing anyone here to do things that are considered by one or the other to be beyond their limits," he argued.

In June 2018, to the Flemish channel VRT, which submitted to him a university study affirming that one in four women in the world of culture has already suffered an unwanted sexual advance at work, he replied: "at home, never".

"In our company, in forty years, there has never been the slightest problem," he assured.

Interested in the themes of death, religion or science, the plastic artist has already exhibited at the Documenta in Cassel, the Venice Biennale, at the Louvre and at the Hermitage museum in Saint Petersburg, not to mention the major galleries. through Europe.

About forty of his sculptures in transparent glass and bone dust were exhibited during the 2017 edition of the Biennale.

Also in Venice, his reinterpretation of Michelangelo's Pietà - Marie with a skull bearing the body of the Flemish artist and not that of Christ - had caused much ink to flow in 2011.

In 2002, he covered the ceiling of the Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace in Brussels with 1.4 million scarab elytra with blue and green reflections, one of his best-known achievements.

© 2021 AFP