Tom Herck’s towering sculpture of fisherman’s skeleton finds permanent home on Scheldt Route

A 10m-high installation by Belgian contemporary artist Tom Herck has taken up residence in the former open-air swimming pool in West Flanders, reports Belga/RTBF.

The Fisherman depicts a colossal human skeleton seated on a chair with dinosaur bones hanging from the end of his fishing rod. “It unites the past, the present, and the future,” explains the artist, who first showed the symbolic work at the Venice Art Biennale in 2024.

“My creations often address the transience and vanity of human beings. As a species, we are not 10 meters tall, but our egos sometimes are,” he says of the “absurd yet poetic scene”.

The skeleton is a reference to the present, to human beings as a species, while the dinosaur represents the past. The fishing rod — a USB cable — conveys the future and digital evolution of society.

Installed above a pool of water serving as a mirror and dark screen, The Fisherman evokes Narcissus, according to the artist. “I'm also aware of my own vanity as an artist: the skull is an enlarged copy of my own.”

The permanent installation is located in the municipality of Spiere-Helkijn, along the Scheldt Route. It is an initiative of Jan Leysen, curator of the Sint-Denijs-City Art Biennale, who wanted to exhibit it in the region during the second edition of the art trail that follows the major river.

“After a visit to Tom Herck's studio, I was truly impressed by The Fisherman,” he says. "The work has an enormous capacity to surprise. We are very grateful that it can remain here."

The regional fund of the province of West Flanders and the Leiedal inter-municipal authority financed the permanent installation.

Venice Art Biennale

For the 60th edition of the prestigious international contemporary art fair, Tom Herck presented his new monumental series in the garden of Palazzo Balbi Valier.

Visible from the Gran Canale and the Ponte de l'Accademia, Once We Ruled the World portrayed the interaction between giant human skeletons and full-size dinosaur skeletons, all interacting with the famous waterway.

The large-scale installation series served as a cautionary reminder of the impermanence of power and the cyclical nature of history, according to the artist. He invited viewers to reflect on the rise and fall of civilizations and species that once dominated the planet.

Born in Sint-Truiden in 1984, Herck is a neo-conceptual multidisciplinary artist, who is renowned for his unconventional and impactful monumental public art installations. His creations span sculptures, installations and mixed-media creations.

Photos: ©Tom Herck