Luk Van Soom was born in Weelde-Statie on 27 October 1956. Sixty years later he had been credited with numerous exhibitions, commissions and projects within Belgium and abroad. Van Soom represented Belgium, for instance, at the World's Fair held in Spain (1992) and installed, for Beaufort (2006), a twelve-meter-tall 'light tree' on the beach at Middelkerke. In addition to this he created more than fifty works for the public domain in the Netherlands and Belgium: urban projects such as Walhalla (1993, Antwerp), The Man from Atlantis (2003, Brussels), The Wharfinger (2005, Zwolle) and Walking to Magdalena (2012, Ostend). In 2015 he was granted an audience with Pope Francis, to whom he presented Oh Superman! (2010), his own version of the crucifix. For his recent monograph he has been able to count on contributions by art experts such as Lisette Pelsers, Jan Teeuwis, Stef van Bellingen, Sara Weyns and Geerdt Magiels; but also by people from other fields, including Rik Torfs, Frank De Winne and Christine Van Broeckhoven.