Artist whose work includes castrated toddlers involved in Balenciaga campaign
Today, more photos from a Balenciaga campaign that was canceled are being called into question because of the popularity of a book that praises a Belgian artist whose work includes pictures of toddlers who have had their testicles cut off.
In two photos from the brand's now-cancelled Spring '23 ad campaign, French actress Isabelle Huppert poses in a Manhattan office with a stack of books behind her.
One of the books is about the painter Michael Borremans from Belgium. Borremans's work is very different, but it often has children in it. In his 2017-2018 series, Fire from the Sun, a group of young children, some of whom have blood on their skin, are arranged in a scary way.In some of the pictures, the babies look like they have been castrated.
Balenciaga hasn't said anything about the Borremans book or how it got into its Spring '23 advertising campaign. There are also clear similarities between Borremans' work and some of Balenciaga's past designs, like Kim's outfit at the Met Gala in 2021, when she wore a black cloth over her face. After the BDSM teddy bears controversy this week, the images of the book of his work were quickly taken down from the fashion brand's website.
In those pictures, young child models were holding the bears, which were actually soft handbags, and posing with glasses.
In a statement released on Monday, the brand apologized again for the bears campaign and said that it was completely its fault.
"We'd like to talk about the problems with our most recent ad campaigns. We are very against hurting children, and it was never our intention to include it in our story.
"The two different ad campaigns in question contain a number of serious mistakes for which Balenciaga is to blame."
"In the first campaign, the gift collection campaign, kids carried plush bear bags and wore outfits that some people have called "BDMS-inspired." Children should not have been shown with our plush bear bags and gift collection.
