The raft

Art is magic.
Art must disturb and charm.
Jan Fabre

The raft is an idea of the ambiguous impulse of the artist to create in peace and seclusion, on the one hand, and to make a social commitment to disarming, critical encounters on the other.
Joanna De Vos

The Raft. Art is (not) lonely, like the eponymous exhibition in Ostend, is about the imagination of the expedition and the destination of the artist. Curators Jan Fabre and Joanna De Vos invited 73 artists to the panoramic North Sea where they were inspired by the metaphor of the raft, or by the two key works in the exhibition : The Raft of the Medusa (1818) by Théodore Géricault and Art is (not) lonely (1986) by Fabre himself. More than 50 new creations were the result. The Raft is buoyed by the urge to cross boundaries. A number of the visual artists involved are also active in the world of film, theatre and performance.