“In 1995 I was invited by Count Renaud de Kerckhove de Denterghem to exhibit in the coach house during their Garden Days in September. During a visit beforehand I took a walk through the park with some friends. At the pond we were suddenly attacked by a swan protecting its family. We started walking and got to the bridge. It swam right up to us, mother and offspring stayed further away. Blowing, spreading wings, neck forward, it was impressive how courageously that animal, from an inferior position below us, gave the signal so clearly that it would even give its life. So full of dedication, movingly strong.

As luck would have it, a friend came to visit the exhibition in the company of her mother-in-law. She ordered a swan for her villa that was named after that animal. After that I repeated the animal a few more times. In miniature she was one of the totem animals in “Animal in Need” as Plato, then again in large in steel and in 2014 a cire-directe for my good friend Yoerik who died a few years later.”