Staesbroers feat. Femke Van Grootel & Sara De Bosschere (De Roovers)
Sunday 9 November 2025
Arenberg
Nederlands
A brotherly collection, a soft punch to the gut.
No sentimentality. No polished phrases. Just raw beauty: love, loss, humor, and a flood of images, drifting between post-punk and poetry.
“The best pact we ever made?”
“That each of us thinks our own poems are the best. No flattery, no back-patting, no wasted compliments. As brothers we shared so much: parents, (almost) lovers, bad jokes, good music, terrible films. And now this too, once more…”
With Bambi & The Big Fuck-Up, the Staes brothers open up a piece of their souls. Through paper, pixels, and QR codes. Raw, unvarnished, unsettling, yet consoling.
The collection will be launched at Crossing Border.
Jef Staes (1967–2024) is no longer with us. As programmer, he was the one who first brought Crossing Border to its Belgian home at Arenbergschouwburg. This collection, promised to each other by Piet, Jef, and Filip in 2024, now returns there.
As founding members of the performance collective De Sprekende Ezels, the Staes brothers published Moerasdrift (2011). Jef later released his solo collection Ruitenwissersproeistof (2022, Fluxemberg).
AUTHORS
Staesbroers
Jef Staes (1967–2024) was programmer at the Arenbergschouwburg and the one who first brought the Crossing Border festival to his hometown. Through his warmth, enthusiasm, and affinity with “the Behres” and their vision, the festival continues to cross the Dutch border year after year.
Jef also had the gift of poetry, which he shared with his brothers Piet and Filip. Together, as founding members of the performance collective De Sprekende Ezels, they published Moerasdrift (2011) following the death of their father. Jef later released a solo collection, Ruitenwissersproeistof (2022?, Fluxemberg).
When Jef confronted his terminal illness with courage in 2024, the brothers decided to create “small moments of retrospection and reflection.” It allowed them to talk, laugh, and grieve together without constantly having to ask, “How are you, Jef?”
Out of these moments grew a book that combines photographs, music, and poetry—a way of once again laying bare both their lighter and darker sides. Rooted in shared childhood, loves, losses, and a vision of humanity, the result is a post-punk poetry collection that insists on being something different, something new.
The title is deliberately raw: Bambi & The Big Fuck-Up. Or perhaps it is poetic after all. “The drama and heroism of Bambi have been filmed before,” the brothers reflected, “but its hidden courage, and the hope that survives despite all fragility, also deserve their place.”
Jef’s wife, Karla Kerckaerts, and his daughter, Merel, helped complete the book. Those moments of reflection proved invaluable. Sadly, Jef passed away far too soon, in May 2024. He never had the chance to look critically at the finished work. Yet as the brothers once said of their collaboration:
“The best pact we ever made? That each of us believes our own poems are the best. No flattery, no ego-stroking, no wasted compliments. As brothers we shared so much: parents, (almost) lovers, bad jokes, good music, terrible films. And now, this as well.”
The poetry collection Bambi & The Big Fuck-Up will be launched during Crossing Border. Supporters who pre-financed the book can collect their signed copies that evening.
Bambi & The Big Fuck-Up
