Jan Fabre / Troubleyn Studios

In 2002, the joint committee of the Royal Palace commissioned works that would generate the first collaboration between Braeckman and fellow artist Jan Fabre. For a period of three months, Dirk Braeckman documented the progress of Fabre and his team in their work on the ceiling and the main chandelier of the Spiegelzaal (hall of mirrors), applying the wing casings of over 1.5 million jewel scarabs. After the installation was complete, the series of photographs was published under the same name as Fabre’s installation: Heaven of Delight (Mercator Publishers, Brussels). Later that year, Braeckman also took photographs for the dance production of Swan Lake, which Jan Fabre wrote for the Royal Ballet of Flanders to the score by Pjotr Tchaikovsky. Unlike traditional portraits of dancers—on stage in the complete stage set—Braeckman’s images were taken backstage, of the characters in costume, completely alone and isolated. In 2007, Braeckman also installed a permanent print of A.M.-B.X.-09-07 on a wall of the massage room of Jan Fabre’s Troubleyn Studios.