True Copy
BERLIN/HZT | BE
Upon their raid, on 6 May 1994, the gendarmes came to understand why Geert Jan Jansen’s French mansion smelled of turpentine. They stumbled upon more than 1,600 works of art: from Dalí and Picasso to Appel and Hockney. For twenty years, master forger Jansen was able to deceive the art world. Until the day he made a mistake. A big one. In the documentary theatre show True Copy, Geert Jan Jansen [1944] talks about his life and work. Meticulously scratching away at the art system that runs on greed, hypocrisy and snobbery. “The only one who never gets any recognition, is the forger. Unless he is exposed,” Jansen sighs. With True Copy the Flemish company BERLIN is testing our gullibility. For the charming Jansen breathes thinner. His intoxicating story touches on the key question: do we want the truth, or a lie of wondrous beauty? Many journalists are suppressing their answer since the publicity stunt pulled by BERLIN in November 2018 – the stolen Tête d’Arlequin by Picasso was said to have been found in Romania. In 2017 BERLIN came to Boulevard with their show Zvizdal, about the ghost town near Chernobyl of the same name. Berlin is also creating work for a Block Box in the festival square.
Credits
Concept an director: Bart Baele & Yves Degryse
Performance: Geert Jan Jansen
Coproduction: deSingel, le CENTQUATRE, Het Zuidelijk Toneel, Brighton Festival, C-TAKT, Theaterfestival Boulevard, PACT Zollverein
NRC: “Voor True Copy bedient BERLIN zich razendknap van de werkelijkheid van de Nederlandse kunstvervalser Geert Jan Jansen.” *****
