This documentary features curator Lynne Cooke and artist Francis Alÿs discussing The Fabiola Project, currently installed in the repurposed Byzantine Fresco Chapel of the Menil Collection. The project consists of more than 450 reproductions of a lost 1885 painting of 4th-century Roman Saint Fabiola depicted in left-facing profile wearing a red headscarf by French artist Jean-Jacques Henner. Belgian artist Francis Alÿs initiated the project in the early 1990s, shortly after he moved to Mexico City. In the city’s flea markets and antique and junk shops, he found and bought versions of Henner’s Fabiola. Gradually, Alÿs’s casual collecting project gathered steam as he and his friends discovered new images of the saint during their travels around the world.
Produced by The Menil Collection and Carrithers Studio in Houston, Texas.