Artwork of the month - video (1 min).

Symbolic Totems - Ten Dries

Year	2026
Size	160 cm x 160 cm x 400 cm
Materials	Stainless Steel 316
Edition	1/1
For Sale	No
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Frank and Robbert created four unique totem poles for the Ten Dries care center in Landegem. The totems are part of the Flemish Government’s VIPA art integration policy and will remain permanently on the site. Each totem has its own symbolic story and its own logic. These sculptural interventions start from the idea of the totem as a protector and consist of a number of stacked symbols, supplemented by one ‘fallen’ symbol lying on the ground.

The symbols themselves function as archetypal carriers of meaning. They touch upon a universal vocabulary that evokes both recognition and leaves room for interpretation. In doing so, they unhesitatingly refer to the collective unconscious, where images and forms break free from their fixed definitions and acquire a more intuitive power.

At the same time, the totems possess a certain playfulness. They invite one to make connections, to construct one’s own stories, to keep looking and reinterpreting. The symbols are building blocks. They can be stacked and restacked and moved and switched between locations.

The choice of symbols did not come about out of nowhere. During various brainstorming sessions with young people from the center, visual elements were collected that reflect their world, imagination, and sensitivities. This input was incorporated into the design process. The totem poles are, as it were, gesamt artworks.

Frank and Robbert also created a series of mini-totem poles in kit form. These are being distributed at the center so that the young people can make their own totems. The totems thus become a dynamic whole and uniquely tell a story of connection and encounter: between individual and group, between play and seriousness, and between the visible and the underlying.

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