ANGELS OF THE SEA Stephan Vanfleteren

For the National Maritime Museum in Amsterdam, I curated Angels of the Sea with Stephan Vanfleteren (Belgium, 1969), who portrayed pupils of Royal Work IBIS in Belgium. There, the boys - between six and sixteen years old and often with a complex home situation - get offered structure, accommodation, a maritime training and a future. My selection of photographs from the IBIS Collection and the Navigo Museum in Belgium included portraits from the early 1900s.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, NL
18 September 2020 - 5 April 2021  
See one of the mini lectures about the exhibition below.​​​

Stephan Vanfleteren, Gabriel, 2016

a black and white photograph of seven young boys in dark sailor suits. The y stand in a line, with the youngest, who looks tiny like a six year old on the far left. The other six boys look bigger and older.
Louis Visage (far left) and fellow IBIS pupils, c. 1920. Collection NAVIGO Museum, Belgium
a hand-coloured black and white identity portrait of a boy in a sailor suit with blue eyes and orange lips. On his sailor hat it says IBIS and the hat also has a crown, four emblems are sewn in the corners of the photograph
Hubert Cattoor, c. 1951. Collection Royal Work IBIS
Stephan Vanfleteren, Llyano, 2016
Angels of the Sea exhibition design by Sabine Verschueren. Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam
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