º1958, Wilrijk, Belgium, Lives and works in Gent, Belgium.
The “Baptism robes” have a stormy history: they were taken by victims of sexual abuse by the Church. The victims recognize their inner emptiness since the child once were brutally raped and then silenced. This project evokes the ghosts of children abused by clergy. The weak blown glass of “Christening dresses” recalls the fragility of childhood.
Thus, Van Stappen, appeals to the apparent duality of human existence that oscillates between cruelty and vulnerability, unwavering strength and fragility, the abomination and beauty, solid and liquid, parents and children, war and peace…
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