“An iconoclasm will not do much,” responds Willem-Frederik Schiltz, party leader of Open VLD. “Since the works of art do not glorify the man, it seems to me that they can linger. It may and must be clear that a work of art is more than the artist.”
“I think you have to disconnect art from people,” says Wilfried Vandaele of N-VA. “If we remove Fabre’s works, we should also start screening the other works in parliament. When do we remove something? Only if the artist has been convicted?”
Vandaele does suggest the possibility of interpreting Fabre’s works in future. That is also what Peter Van Rompuy, party leader of CD&V, says. “As a group, we strongly condemn any form of sexual violence,” says Van Rompuy. “But the work of art in parliament can be preserved if a clearly visible explanation is applied, which points to the difference between the work and the artist. In addition, CD&V wants to submit this question to the Art Committee of the parliament.”
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