On risk

Jan Fabre, famous as you are, you do still very much like to take risks it seems.

It depends on what type of risk you are talking about: mental, physical or social risk. I often feel alone in the artistic landscape, because what I say, I do; what I make, I am. There are not many artists who are free to take risks, particularly in theatre. They are so steeped in the ideology of the system that they become too docile and accommodating.

Festival and theatre directors tend to say: ‘Please don’t shock my audience!’ Many artists are becoming compliant, getting audiences to leave the theatre on a happy note. It is a question of survival. Generally speaking, in theatre you don’t dare take risks as you might in the visual arts or in performance.

Is this because theatre involves a relationship with a group?

Of course. As a visual artist you create your work, and afterwards it enters an ideological system, a gallery or a museum. Most of the time in theatre, artists work already inside an ideological system which penetrates their work. You can somehow almost smell it. 

Do you not feel that society is much more permissive today, though?

In the late 1970s and early 80s, the economic ...