FABIENNE WEBER
DON GIOVANNI
Inspired by Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni, in the daring and sulphurous staging by Marie-Eve Signeyrole for the Opéra national du Rhin in 2019, this series denounces, through the face mask of baritone Nikolay Borchev and the recurring motif of the Monstera leaf on a kraft paper bag, the psychological and physical violence rooted in male domination, with references to the film The Square by Ruben Östlund.

Sofa ,2020
mixed media on paper
20 x 29 cm

Four works from the DON GIOVANNI series, in the studio, at the port of the Rhine, in Strasbourg

Don Giovanni V Giulietta, 2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm

Venus with a Pear, Homage to Giulio Paolini, 2020
mixed media on paper
20 x 29 cm, artist's collection

Don Giovanni IV Platycerium bifurcatum, 2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm
private collection



Don Giovanni IV Platycerium bifurcatum, details,2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm
private collection

Don Giovanni III Monstera Deliciosa, 2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm



Don Giovanni III Monstera Deliciosa, details,2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm
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Don Giovanni II Monstera Deliciosa,2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm

Don Giovanni I Cuore, 2020
mixed media on kraft paper bag
44 x 53 cm

The Donne,2019
mixed media on chipboard
35 x 35 cm
Present both in the audience and on stage throughout the opera, the artist was deeply affected by the outrageous audacity of this version and by the baritone's striking interpretation of an amoral and bestial Don Giovanni . The mask in her image – reproduced in tens of thousands of copies and worn by both artists and audiences – became the starting point for her creation.
His works take as their support the kraft paper bag, a metaphor for the consumption of the tragic seducer. The Monstera leaves, a haunting motif, evoke the jungle and the bestiality of the predator, echoing the striking sequence from the film The Square , reinterpreted on stage, where Don Giovanni emerges in the guise of a furious gorilla. The golf clubs, here transposed into plant forms, recall the one brandished by Donna Elvira to wreck her vehicle – a nod to Bertrand Lavier's Giulietta preserved at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Strasbourg.