×
FREE ASSISTANCE FOR THE INQUISITIVE PEOPLE
Tutorial Topics
X
softetechnologies
The veiled Christ, by Giuseppe Sammartino The Garment Worker, by Judith Weller
De Vaartkapoen, by Tom Frantzen - Scintillating Sculptures
582    Dibyendu Banerjee    15/01/2024

Located in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Belgium, in front of the building of the Communauté Française, De Vaartkapoen, a permanent piece of street art, created in 1985 by talented and imaginative Belgian artist Tom Frantzen, depicts a comical situation in which a policeman in old-style uniform with his hands outstretched is trying to prevent himself from falling flat on his face, because a miscreant, a canal rascal, popping out of a manhole, has grabbed his ankle.

softetechnologies

De Vaartkapoen, which literally means channel rascal, is made up of two Dutch words, in which Vaart stands for a channel and Kapoen for insolent. The person who appears from the sewer opening on the footpath, just behind the policeman, is a vaartkapoen or a rogue in the channel. Although comical, the sculpture represents the idea of overthrowing authority.

de vaartkapoen by tom frantzen

The scene is straight out of the comic series ‘Quick and Flupke’, featuring two mischievous boys, created by the famous Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the creator of the famous cartoon characters, Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and others.

softetechnologies

However, the sculpture represents the idea of overthrowing authority and through it the artist wanted to represent the youth causing authority to waver, which apparently has its origins in the dockworkers of the country who, long ago, rose in strong protest against the government for multiple grievances.

de vaartkapoen by tom frantzen
de vaartkapoen by tom frantzen

Born in 1954 in Brussels and studied at the National School of Architecture and Visual Arts, La Cambre in Brussels, Tom Frantzen describes himself as a contemporary Flemish fantasy artist. In his De Vaartkapoen, he stages a signifying little scene on two levels - the level of the sewers, which lead into the canal and the level of the pavement, complete with a lamppost, the cobblestones and the manhole cover.

softetechnologies

The low level features the Vaartkapoen, representing a young rebel, topples over a policeman higher up, symbolising overthrowing his authority. It seems, like a still picture, the two characters have elegantly turned into bronze and remained so forever, leaving the rest of the scene to our imagination.

de vaartkapoen by tom frantzen
The veiled Christ, by Giuseppe Sammartino The Garment Worker, by Judith Weller
softetechnologies
Author Details
Dibyendu Banerjee
Ex student of Scottish Church College. Served a Nationalised Bank for nearly 35 years. Authored novels in Bengali. Translated into Bengali novels/short stories of Leo Tolstoy, Eric Maria Remarque, D.H.Lawrence, Harold Robbins, Guy de Maupassant, Somerset Maugham and others. Also compiled collections of short stories from Africa and Third World. Interested in literature, history, music, sports and international films.
Enter New Comment
Comment History
No Comment Found Yet.
Rabindranath Tagore
Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.
Rabindranath Tagore
332
56.43
Today So Far
Total View (Lakh)
softetechnologies
26/05/2018     43327
01/01/2018     36386
25/06/2018     35154
28/06/2017     34478
02/08/2017     32895
01/08/2017     27378
06/07/2017     27148
15/05/2017     26767
14/07/2017     22384
21/04/2018     21022
softetechnologies