Spiritual Guards is the catalogue title for the large-scale exhibition promoted by the Municipality of Florence to be held at the Belvedere Fortress, Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria between May 14 and October 2016.
This is one of the most complex exhibitions by the Flemish artist and theatrical director, Jan Fabre, ever held in Italian public areas. On display will be about a hundred works created between 1978 and 2016: bronze sculptures, scarab shell installations, wax pieces, and documentary films of his performances. Fabre will also present two brand new works created especially for this occasion.

The important event is beautifully illustrated in this book with photography by the internationally famous photographer, Attilio Maranzano.
Critical essays and introductions by the curators Melania Rossi and Joanna De Vos, the project’s artistic director, Sergio Risaliti, and by Arabella Natalini, provide analyses of the works on show and describe the extraordinary and multifaceted career of the artist.

Spiritual Guards is an incitement to live a heroic life, either unarmed or as a warrior, in defence of imagination and beauty.

For more than thirty-five years Jan Fabre (1958, Antwerp) has been one of the most innovative and important figures on the international contemporary art scene. As a visual artist, theatre maker and author he has created a highly personal world with its own rules and laws, as well as its own characters, symbols, and recurring motifs. Fabre has earned the recognition of a worldwide audience with public works in sites of historical importance, such as his latest installation in Antwerp Cathedral. He has presented large-scale solo exhibitions in prestigious museums such as the Louvre in Paris and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and he is currently preparing a new project at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.