James Franco Gets Carved for Rebel
A Rebel Without A Cause-inspired installation for the Venice Biennale.
James Franco isn't your average actor/film director/screenwriter/film producer/author/painter and performance artist. Mere months after his first solo gallery show at Berlin's Peres Projects and a collaborative display with Gus Van Sant at Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, he is now slated to take part in Rebel, a site-specific installation for the Venice Biennale. The world's preeminent art showcase will this year be directed by Bice Curinger and will run from June 4 to November 27. The Rebel installation will be curated by Dominic Sidhu who recently held a show of art from Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan and is set to be staged on the island of Certosa. The show will pay homage to Rebel Without a Cause, the 1955 cult film starring James Dean.
Having played James Dean in TNT's 2001 biopic by the same name, Franco's involvement in Rebel is the latest chapter in his enduring obsession with his Old Hollywood doppelganger. For months, the 33-year-old has been writing and directing a biopic about openly gay actor Sal Mineo, who played John 'Plato' Crawford in Rebel Without a Cause.
Rebel will also comprise other big-name contributors from the creative world including: Damon and Paul McCarthy, Douglas Gordon and Harmony Korine. The McCarthy father and son duo will participate with a film revisiting Franco's role in TNT's 2001 biopic, James Dean.
Rosie Dalton
