The decision fell this followingnoon, Jan Fabre’s turtle, whose real name “searching for utopia”, will remain in place on the site of the citadel of Namur.
This Tuesday followingnoon, the municipal college, on the other hand, decided to put in place three measures to accompany this decision. First, a didactic panel will be placed next to the work: “That will put things in perspective and this will also make it possible to denounce the acts that were committed by Jan Fabre“, explains the mayor of Namur Maxime Prévot.
Second measure, the character of Jan Fabre, represented seated on the turtle, will have his eyes covered by a black blindfold for 18 months, i.e. the duration of his suspended sentence. The aim for the City of Namur is to be able to symbolically show its disapproval of the behavior of the artist and his actions.
Finally, public lighting in the evening around the statue will be turned off for 18 months, starting this Tuesday evening.
Insufficient measures? The mayor of Namur defends the decision: “This will certainly always be insufficient compared to the collectives or the people who would have liked the statue to be removed. But as we decided to keep it, it was normal for it to be accompanied by a series of measures which make it possible to express the disapproval of the City of Namur with regard to the attitude of the man, even if it is not is not his artistic work which has obviously been the subject of condemnation“.
