De Vaartkapoen - Brussels, Belgium - Figurative Public Sculpture on Waymarking.com

om Frantzen is a Flemish sculptor who studied at the Ecole Nationale d'Architecture et des Arts Visuels in Brussels. He soon discovered that intellectual study was not for him, he preferred the creative arts. In his free time he took painting lessons, and on being told he painted like a sculptor, the die was cast, and he gave up his original plans to study architecture in favour of sculpture. His work is mostly "fun" or "zwanze", typical Brussels humour.


The "De Vaartkapoen" statue was created in 1985 and it was placed in Molenbeek, Brussels, in front of the building of the Communauté Française). Working on an imposed subject, that of "De Vaartkapoen", which is the name given to the people who were born in Molenbeek (literally "de vaart" means "the canal" and "kapoen" means cheeky), Tom Frantzen stages a little scene on two levels: the level of the sewers (which lead into the canal) and the level of the pavement (see the lamppost, the cobblestones and the manhole cover).
Low down, a young rebel, the Vaartkapoen, reminiscent of a jack-in-the-box, topples over a policeman higher up, thus overthrowing his authority.

With this statue, the artist makes an implied reference to cartoonist Hergé (who is mostly famous for being the creator of Tintin, and shared the same "zwanze" as Frantzen) by changing the officer's roll number from 22 (22 being a pun, because of the French expression "vingt-deux, v'là les flics"= "watch out, here come the cops") to 15 ("Officer 15" was another of Hergé's famous characters).
In a snapshot-like motion, the two characters gracefully turn into bronze and remain so forever, leaving the rest of the scene to our imagination... which is how the rebellious Brussels artist gets passers-by to share a joke with him.

Cited from (visit link)

Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: De Vaartkapoen Figure Type: Human Artist Name or use 'Unknown' if not known: Tom Frantzen Date created or placed or use 'Unknown' if not known: 1985 Materials used: bronze Location: in Molenbeek, Brussels, in front of the building of the Communauté Française

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Date Logged Log User Rating   10/13/2018 johnny lightning visited it