Thursday, 02 January 2025
Front page: DISTANT SUFFERING VI | i.d. of a shared key | Kunstverein projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany - 2023
Verbeke Foundation | KemzekeBelgium | November 24, 2024 | oeuvre exposition
Germany
Photo courtesy of ©2024 Dirk Knickhoff
The head scarfed girl
Autonomous art works
Participatory art works
Paper collages
Dr. Dani Ploeger
Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet’s critical media practice
Justification
Exhibitions / art-related activities - selection
Acknowledgement
studio address | Dreesstraat 2, Vlissingen www.hansovervliet.com curiositas@zeelandnet.nl
photo ©Beaune 2022 courtesy of Willy van Houtum
M. & cross #2 | Middelburg Saturday, March 17, 2018
In the studio complex in Vlissingen in the Netherlands, where my studio is situated, an artwork of mine is located on an intermediate platform of the stairwell. From ground level, five steps lie between you and that work. It measures 144 x 244 centimetres.
The artwork is an enlargement of a paper collage, printed on Perspex; different images are cut out horizontally and pasted back and thus interlock into a story with each other. Indeed it is the Image on the right.
A group of twelve year old children of a primary school is visiting the complex in the context of an art education project.
A head scarfed girl, called M., sees the artwork and freezes in her movement. And she looks. After some time she takes the five steps up. Now she is standing still on the intermediate platform.
And looks. Then she slowly walks forward. Somewhere in the jumble of images she has discovered the head scarfed girl. That girl stands with her arms wide spread amidst the rubble of a street somewhere in Syria. The iconic picture of a prisoner in the Abu Ghraib Prison is imminent.
Our girl now touches the image almost with her nose; the artwork towering above her. Then she moves very, very slowly her hands together until her fingertips touch each other as if she was holding a sphere. Then her hands include the girl's head in the collage.
She is standing there, her hands around the head of the other head scarfed girl. Eye in eye. Face à face . . .
DISTANT SUFFERING I
| syrianskies1,000days - 2014
work
12 prints A4 of photos from the Dutch daily de Volkskrant of 23/12/’13
Canon MP-101 matt photo paper 170 grams, Canon Pixma MG6150 printer on 10 mm. foam board
exhibitions
Syrian skies [1,000 days] | April 8, 2014
12 clouds on A4, Art Space Willem3, Flushing
Syrian skies [2,000 days] | October 21, 2016
12 clouds on A4, Art Space W45, Goes
Syrian skies [2,238 days] | May 17, 2017
12 clouds on A4 for Studio 7 in Flushing
Syrian skies [3,333 days] | May 31, 2021
12 clouds on A4 for Luxfer Open Space, Česká Skalice - Czech Republic
Syrian skies [3,672 days] | May 5, 2022
40 clouds on A5, for KART / David Delifiora – Geelong – Australia
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
Flushing – 2015
What looks like a collection of modern, enlarged versions of classic cloudscapes turns out to be an adaptation of images of explosions in Syria. Overvliet brings the printing rasters back into this age of superresolution. Where in past years he commented on the images of war in collages, he now takes a closer look at them in a style that is entirely new to me. Very impressive.
Noud Hovius - writer
DISTANT SUFFERING II | anatomyofacloud[gaza]- 2014
work
5 colour prints on Hahnemüle German Etching 310 grs. , each 82,2 x 12,8 cm. mounted on 10 mm. foam board
photo Gaza, Beit Hanoun, 13 August 2014. Unknown photographer
exhibitions W45, Goes | 2014
studio seven | Vlissingen | 2016
Sea Foundation, Tilburg | 2018
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic | 2021
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
DISTANT SUFFERING III | i.d. of recovery
work
2 platters Ø 45 cm. | 2 video stills | video with the sound of the crushing platter
photo
coutesey of ©2018 Niek Hendrix | Lost Painters
exhibitions
Mon Capiatine | Middelburg - 2015
Nieuwe Kerk / Abdijcomplex | BEELDENSTORM / ICONOCLASTIC FURY - 2017
curator Johan de Koning
DISTORTION | Willem Twee kunstruimte | Den Bosch – 2018
curator | Loek Grootjans
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021
curators | Roman Rejhold and Kate Štroblová
Kulturverein Projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany - 2023
curators | Dirk D. Knickhoff, Elisabeth Schink, Ulrike E.W. Scholder
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
video link
DISTANT SUFFERING IV
| documentationofacloud- 2015
work
3 x [ 8,2 x 12,8 cm.]
full colour prints on Hahnemüle German Etching 310 grs. mounted on 10 mm. Kapafix
the Syrische town Kobane / Ain al-Arab, observed from the Turkish village
Mursitpinar / Mürşitpınar [ 36° 54' 14" North, 38° 20' 52" East ] in the Sanliurfa region
Monday, October 20, 2014
exhibitions (WOOT) Antwerpen | Belgium - 2015
Art Gouda | het Weeshuis - 2016
studio seven | Vlissingen - 2016
Sea foundation Tilburg - 2018
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
photo | Bulent Kilic | AFP Photo
photo | Gokhan Sahin | Getty Images
photo | Lefteris Pitarakis | AP Photo
SUFFERING
work
VI | i.d.ofasharedkey#1– 2015 | -
exhibit practice in progress
selection from in total 215 old, cleaned tin cans an imprint of a key, pressed into plaster in the shape of a gold bar
exhibitions
Art Gouda | het Weeshuis - 2016
Theater De Fransche School | Culemborg - 2016
Kunstpodium ‘T’ | Tilburg | Steal like an Artist! - 2020
curated by Lost Painters | Niek Hendrix
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic - 2021
Part of the Lípa Art Collection | Prague | Czech Republic - 2022
curated by Roel van der Linden
EEJ! | 14 HUBSA art houses in an art street | Goes
curated by r André Smits
Kulturverein Projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany – 2023
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
Palestinian refugees whom I met from the early eighties, to the pre-sent day keep up the keys of their homes from which they were expelled from 1948 on by the state of Israel. The current generation Palestinians carries all kinds of keys and key chains as jewellery.
In 1991, for the first time I read the book Pity the Nation, Lebanon at War by Robert Fisk *. The chapter "The Keys of Palestine" ** associating me with my own experiences, I always remembered.
The artwork consists of 215 scoured biscuit tins, of which I remo-ved the enamel and / or paint. Inside the tins are a print of a key, pressed into plaster in the shape of a gold bar.
The can functions also as a container of the memories of my own childhood storing my treasures. It is also the metaphor of the forgotten memory [with forgotten postcards, far forgotten coins from countries visited, etc.] that everybody has picked away.
Each exhibition image is determined in situ.
The pictures on the next pages show the work in the exhibition ART GOUDA [01/06 / '16 - 05/06 / '16].
This work measures (height x width x depth) 2.44 x 1.22 x 1.22 cm.
* Pity the Nation | Robert Fisk | Oxford Paperbacks
ISBN 978-0-19-280130-2 | 1990
** This chapter can be read on http://www.archipelago.org/vol6-3/fisk.htm
Luxfer Open Space | Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | 2021 photo ©Lukáš Jasanský | courtesy by Luxfer
Art Gouda | het Weeshuis | 2016
Kunstpodium ‘T’ | Tilburg | 2020 | photo courtesy of ©2020 Niek Hendriks
| October 5, 2023
photo courtesey of ©André Smits
Belgium | November 23, 2025
photo courtesey of ©Dirk KnickhoffGermany | Verbeke Foundation
23, 2025
photo courtesey of ©Jorieke | November
DISTANT SUFFERING VII-VIII-IX
| i.d.ofasharedcloud/wave/home- 2015 selection used images work
3 ‘out-lines’ of filing cabinets, each 134 cm. x 49,5 cm. x 71 cm. [ h x w x d ]
material
weathering steel 2x [ 10 x 10 mm.] 1x [ 12 x 12 mm.], wooden bars 1 x 1 cm., Nobo OHP Transparency Film, sided acid-free tape
filled with
1,000 images of explosions and ‘holiday clouds’ on 50 sheets codes super imposed on the images: unique location positioning from a military open source website;
1,000 images of waves | statistics Global Warming on 50 sheets;
1,000 images of destroyed houses | ground plans in the images: send to me - in 1996 on my request – from and of 72 national libraries The World Library Art Project on 50 sheets.
exhibitions
AFFAF | Café Spoorzicht – Arnemuiden - 2015
Biënnale Amersfoort | Vreemde Gasten ( Foreign Guests ) - 2016
Abby Complex | Middelburg | Iconoclastic Fury - 2017
Sea foundation | Tilburg [ residence ] – 2018
Single work with the waves | Bewaerschole | Burgh-Haamstede – 2024
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
DISTANT SUFFERING VII-VIII-IX - 2016
photo
courtesey of ©2017 | Anne Breel
DISTANT SUFFERING XVIII | defacingpalestine|thenakba1948- 2018
I spent 40 days - starting April 24, 2018 – charting 417 destroyed Palestinian villages / towns with the name, both in Latin and in Arabic script, the geographical location, the number of inhabitants in 1948 and a photo from the remains of that village / town. I poured that information into 417 obituaries and stored them in a steel archive cabinet. To complete the installation, I made a video of his computer screen, which shows all the actions that led to each individual obituary.
work
conceived from April 24 till June 2, 2018
1 metal archive box with drawer | brand / production year unknown
39,7 x 19,8 x 15,3 cm [ l., w., h. ] | handle 8,5 x 0,8 cm.
417 obituaries | 19, 1 cm. x 14,7 cm. [ l., w. ]
black & white prints with 5% extra cyan on Staples inkjet printer paper, 170 g/m2, matt | by Canon PIXMA IMAX651
laptop Samsung notebook NP.R530 with a video of the making process [ www.vimeo.com/268949587 ]
2 consoles | MDF 18 mm. | Flexa white primer | Flexa white satin gloss for metal archive box: 90 x 28 x 60 cm. [ h., w., l. ] for laptop [ Samsung R530]: 90 x 36 x 23,3 cm. [ h., w., l. ]
text on inner wall | Details ( excerpt ) | Ghayath Almadhoun exhibition
ruimteCAESUUR | Middelburg - 2018 - opening speech by Ingrid Rollema
Juxtapose Art Fair | Aarhus - Denmark - 2021
click here for the catalog
DISTANT
SUFFERING XXB | i.d.ofasharedgameset– 2021
work
1:144 3D Battle Damaged Building Outland Model Railway Office Scene
For Child Gift Hand Work Plastic ABS Assemble Game Set (Li Limyt)
Bleached bird feathers
Plexiglass hood | 25 x 25 x 25 [ x o,3 ] cm.
Console | 30 x 25 x 2,5 cm. MDF 9 mm. | primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
exhibitions
رتوبک – KABUTAR – PIGEON, INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EXCHANGE PROGRAM
Cultural exchange exhibition between Pakistan / Karachi and Italy / Milan
Curator | Mehreen Hashimi
DISTANT SUFFERING – the project | 2021
Solo oeuvre exhibition | Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice / Czech Republic
Curator | Kateřina Štroblová
photo next page ©Lukáš Jasanský, courtesy by Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic
IN THE GLARE OF GREY MOON | 2022
Group exhibition in Lahore / Pakistan | Curator | Mehreen Hashimi
INSANES | 2023 | SmithArt | Group exhibition in Middelburg
Curator | Johan de Koning
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
Photos courtesy of 2023 Bo de Jong
DISTANT SUFFERING XX
C | i.d.ofasharedcupoftea- 2021
work
text
tea glass | Loctite Super Glue Glas | blood of the artist, sand from Zeeland waiting for sand from Jackson, West Tennessee | engraved brass plate
Plexiglass hood | 25 x 25 x 25 [ x o,3 ] cm. | Console | 110 x 25 x 25 cm. MDF 9 mm.,
primer white / topcoat Gamma white 710 – matt
brass engraved text sign 95 x 50 mm
In memory of
Raja Hamid Yahya al-Oud [14] † 23 March 2018 | Sa'dah – Yemen
Raja was it by a CBU-52 B/B cluster bomb, manufactured in 1977 in the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in Jackson, West Tennessee, U.S.A.
exhibition
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021
Dishoek – during national ‘binker day’ - 2023
Durden and Ray Gallery | Los Angeles | U.S.A. – 2023
SmithArt | Middelburg | INSANES | 2023 |
Kunstverein projektraum-bahnhof25 | Kleve | Germany – 2023
Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | 2024 -2025
catalog click here for the catalog
DISTANT
SUFFERING XXE | i.d.ofliquidmobility- 2021
work
two Dutch newspapers [ NRC / VK ]
wallpaper paste Perfix non-woven | paint: Histor black 6372 – matt
two Faller rowing boats blue, Artitec H0 Steel A387.09-BL approximately 50 x 33 cm. on
four threaded rods | Ø 5 mm
exhibitions
decreet-concreet | Zeeuws Art Magazine - September 2020
Boulevard of beauty & solace | Middelburg Canal / opposite Town Hall - 2020
Turbulent Waters | Arsis | Markizaat / Bergen op Zoom - 2020 / 2021
Luxfer Open Space | Česká Skalice | Czech Republic – 2021
Boulevard of beauty & solace | decreet | Vlissingen - 2023
click here for the catalog
De Vasim | Nijmegen
the kite-flying Dutchman
cultural history of the Dutch aviation imagination from 1600 - 2020
Uit: ‘De vliegerende Hollander’ | cultuurgeschiedenis van de Nederlande vliegverbeelding vanaf 1600 - 2020
From: ‘the kite-flying Dutchman’ | cultural history of the Dutch aviation imagination from 1600 – 2020 ( translation H.O. )
Gaza and Vlíssingen
Almost four centuries after an image of an Ambonese fishing kite appeared in a Dutch book, and three centuries after the blind seer Rumphius wrote about it in his Ambo Insch herb book – the fish kite was reinvented in a Dutch children’s book. It now had become an eco friendly reminder of a world where you could fish without a permit from Brussels’ fishing quotas. A world without politics. But such a world without politics only exists in children’s books. This became clear once again when the Zeeland artist Hans Overvliet organized a kite project for the Middelburg gallery Caesuur in 2018. In the 70th year of the state of Israel, Overvliet asked twenty artists from home and abroad to create a work of art on a hexagonal sheet of Japanese paper that could be converted into a kite. The resulting kites were launched on October 20, 2018 on the Vlissingen beach. The artist wanted to recall the fact that in 2011 the Guinness record for the largest number of simultaneously launched kites was set by children from the Gaza Strip: 12.35 kites remained in the air for the required 30 seconds at a time. A nice action, but Overvliet also pointed to a less pleasant side of kite flying in Gaza: “ On the other hand, kites are used to fly flammable materials and small explosives to Israeli territory and cause damage there.” The intention was that the kite artworks would contribute to constructive thinking about such ambivalences.Thatdidnotworkverywell.
and cause damage there.” The intention was that the kite artworks would contribute to constructive thinking about such ambivalences. That did not work very well. Some spectators thought they saw swastikas and anti-Semitic messages on the kites, and others even saw a bomb explosion where one of the artists wanted to depict a vagina. There was a fuss in local politics. The planned revival of the event, a few days later, was canceled. As the initiator remarked: “It makes little sense that I will tell on the boulevard what the kites are for, when people who think we should be shot in the legs, as I read on social media, threaten to come.”
Almost a hundred years after the kite competition of Jacob Israël de Haan, the Vlissingen kite project made it painfully clear that peace in the Middle East was still a long way off. It also raised a question that had often been asked in the confrontation between the Western and the Eastern world: is the kite an innocent piece of children’s toy, a symbol of innocence and hope, or is it a means of fighting?
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX0
| dissectionofadisappearingcloud
nine parts
March 26 - April 26, 2019
total dimensions work | 287,7 x 192,9 cm.
work
Cloud, actually painted with rubble from the spot in Gaza where annihilated Mishal Cultural Center was situated, in extremely diluted East-Indian ink & Arabic gum on Simili Japon, 225 grs. 96,0 x 65,0 cm. in nine wooden frames, each 97,9 x 66,3 x 4,5 cm.
Total dimensions 287,7 x 192,9 cm.
content
Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza - obliterated in a bomb strike by the Israel Defence Forces on August 9, 2018 with the Watermans Arts Centre in London.
From every exhibition space in which I display work within DISTANT SUFFERING, I collect dust and I paint a picture with that dust.
exhibition Radical Immersions | Watermans Arts Centre, London. In parallel with the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts [ D.R.H.A. ] conference | 2019.
The exhibition was curated by Klio Krajewska. Verbeke Foundation | Kemzeke | Belgium | curated by Marie Verboven
Gaza City | January 26, 2018
the spot where the SAID AL-MISHAL CULTURAL CENTER stood photo’s ©2019 | Mohammed Al hawajri
Gaza City | January 26, 2018
the rubble in the plastic back photo’s ©2019 | Mohammed Al hawajri
Works / places
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 0 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with Radical Immersions | Watermans Arts Centre, London. In parallel with the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts [ D.R.H.A. ] conference | 2019. The exhibition was curated by Klio Krajewska.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 1 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with the studio complex Kipvis in Vlissingen & Gallery Arsis in Bergen op Zoom.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 2 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with ruimteCAESUUR.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 3 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2018 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Sea foundation in Tilburg.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 4 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2019 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with de Roofprintpers in Middelburg.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 5 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2019 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza the art space Kunsthal 45 in Den Helder.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 6 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Gaza with the art spaces in Pakistan and Italy in which the exhibitions of the art-project Kabutar, curated by Mehreen Hashmi, was exhibited.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 7 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2020 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center Biekorf, Bruges, Belgium within the program Comedy of the human deficit by Geertje Vangenechten, curated by Jan Verhaeghe
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 8 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2020 – 2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Arsis, exhibition in the Markiezenhof, Bergen op Zoom.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 9 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Kunstprdium’T’ in Tilburg.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 10 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with This Art fair, Amsterdam
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 11 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Luxfer Open Space in Česká Skalice in the Czech Republic.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 12 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2021 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with in the Juxtapose Art Fair / Rå Ha in Arhus in Denmark.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 14 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the torn down ‘t Blokhuis in Kattedijke.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 15 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Lípa Art Collection in Prague in the Czech Republic.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 16 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the Institute for Palestine Studies, Palestine Hall/ IPS building, Beirut, Lebanon
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 17 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with The Poortersloge, CultuurCentreBruges, Belgium
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 18 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Supermarket Independent Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 19 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with the garden and the art-house of Slipvillan in Stockholm, Sweden.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 20 | DISSECTION OF A DISAPPEARING CLOUD
2022 | Connecting the Said al-Mishal Cultural Center with Studio44 in Stockholm, Sweden.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX / 21 connecting with theTirana Biennial of Graphic Arts, First edition” 25 October- 25 November 2022
Art Gallery of Tirana, Tirana, Albania
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 22 connecting with the exhibition what is the value of art? organised in Noordstraat 74 in Terneuzen by Zeur Hoenderop in November - December 2022.
I revitalized DISTANT SUFFERING VII - VIII – IX into a multiple. Click here for the ( Dutch! ) statement I made for this exhibition
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 23 connecting with the Dokumenta Archive in Kassel, Germany, December 2022. The poster ‘i.d. of inequality’ is – thanks to Jürgen Olbrich – part of their history and collection.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 24 connecting with NO-INSTITUTE of Jürgen OOlbrich, Kassel, Germany in December 2022. In 2022 we started working together on several ( mail-art ) projects, all accompanied by delightful dialogues.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 25 connecting with Adam Roussopoulos, mail artist in Chaska, USA | January 2023
Stamps of ‘i.d. of a shared bullet’ and my portrait stamp became part of his mail-art-stamp project.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 26 conecting with Sana’a, in Yemen, collected by Galit on February 12, 2023 for the Durden&RayUSA version of i.d. of a shared cup of tea. Tanks to Issam and Bo.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 27 connecting with the Verbeke Foundation in Kemzeke, Belgium. Almost all my paper collages now are part of the collection of the Verbeke Foundation. Thanks to Geert Verbeke.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 28 connecting with bunkers from WWII in Dishoek, Zeeland, June 3, 2023. Thanks to leon riekwell and John.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 29 connecting with art centre Toonbeeld in Terneuzen Zeeland / Pakje Kunst, June 2023.
Thanks to Harmien Hamelink. Postiljon d’amour Ramon de Nennie.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 30 connecting with Gallery DurdenandRay, Los Angeles, U.S.A., August 2023.
Thanks to Carlos Beltran Arechiga who connected us and Ben Jackel, who delivered the dust.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 31 connecting with Kunstverein Projectraum Bahnhof25, Kleve, Germany
November 11 – December 12, 2023
Thanks to Dirk Knickhoff, Elisabeth Schink and Ulrike Scholder.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 32 connecting with SmithArt in Middelburg where I exhibited this very project.
October 1, 2023 – January 3, 2024
Thanks to Tineke Smith and Johan de Koning, curator.
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 33 connecting with Bewaerschole in Burgh-Haamstede.
August 24 – September 22, 2024
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 34 connecting with ik geef je mijn raam I give you my window in Vlissingen.
September 6 – October 20, 2024
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 35 connecting with ‘Still Alive – Voices from Gaza’ the Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg.
September 08 – November 31, 2024
DISTANT SUFFERING XIX 36 connecting with Pop-up the machine Vlissingen.
October 26 – October 27, 2024
Photo
DISTANT SUFFERING XXII | i.d.ofinequality- 2020
work
200 full colour posters A1 [ 59,4 x 84 cm. ] qr-code linking to the main text on 135 gr. MC paper with the paraphernalia of ‘travelling / mobility’, placed in public spaces all over the world and a catalog / book in the making, following the process participation on this moment more than 130 participants from over 60 countries click here for the catalogue in the making
In our globalized world, there are many political contradictions: rich vs poor, white vs black, north vs south, et cetera. In recent years you have also seen this contradiction increasingly clearly expressed in mobility. Especially in the western world, travel-ling has taken extreme forms with the rise of tourism, and the globalization of internationally oriented companies, research centres, universities, et cetera.
This mobility contrasts sharply with the necessary escape from war and poverty of migrants. There is no warm welcome for them, as western people can expect everywhere. No infrastructure in which they feel safe, no tax benefits, but countless dangers and hardships and hopeless admission criteria. Their mobility is restricted as much as possible and sold to us in terms of 'reception in the region'. While reality expresses itself in degrading refugee camps.
In short, mobility is currently one of the clearest examples of privilege. However, the poster shows one of the few similarities between these different travellers, namely their luggage. The poignant differrence is in the contents of these suitcases, bags and backpacks.
May 2020 | W.F.T. van Houtum
DISTANT SUFFERING XXII | i.d.ofinequality- 2020
presentations of the interim responses
Milan | Independent Artists | ( MAN OF ) STREET ART | Villa Bentano / Busto Garolfo – Milan
October 4 – 21, 2020
four prints with reactions [ Gaza - Palestine, Venice - Italy, Fujian - China and Karachi – Pakistan ] on A2-Dibond and one A-0 full colour poster with qr-code linking to the main text all on 135 gr. MC paper with the paraphernalia of ‘travelling / mobility’ a catalogue A4, printed landscape on a pedestal with the results of the project until the exhibition date
Stockholm | Slipvillan on Längholmen | De Aningslösa - The Uninitiate
June 4 – 19, 2022
Poster A2, seven A3 posters with photos, one A3 print with text click here for the catalog in the making
Temporal Disruption and Anti-Efficiency: Hans Overvliet’s critical media practice
Dr.DaniPloeger
The proliferation of digital news media over the past two decades has led to the distribution of increasing numbers of news events at ever higher speeds. Through news feeds and live alerts, updates on the latest incidents all over the world are disseminated almost instantly and continuously. In The Administration of Fear (2012), Paul Virilio discusses the paradoxical consequences of this development. Instead of facilitating a more detailed assessment of events and thus trigger empathetic action on the side of the recipient, the fast sequence of detailed mediatization of catastrophes and threats promotes a permanent state of fear. Whereas, in previous media eras, fear used to be ‘related to localized, identifiable events that were limited to a certain timeframe’, it has now increasingly become an environment that determines everyday life in the Global North.
It is this paradigm of speed and fear that has formed the starting point for Hans Overvliet’s work since the mid-2000s. In Cross #2 (2007) press photos of violent events during the Second Gulf War are cut into strips and woven into fragments of fashion and architecture photography. At first sight, it is not quite clear what the image fragments in the resulting Duratrans print represent. Unlike the original war photographs, the often-graphic nature of which instant-ly fills you with horror, you need to take some time to decipher their gruesome contents. In addition to the collision of the slick realm of consumer culture with the destruction of warfare, two processes are at work here: On one hand, the cutting up and weaving of the image strips foregrounds that the photos also exist as aesthetic objects in themselves, rather than merely a means of representation that gives access to a reality elsewhere. Thus, the process of mediation and the distantiation between the viewer and the events represented are
tiation between the viewer and the events represented are foregrounded. On the other, by making the contents less readily accessible to the beholder, the images are removed from the rapid stream of catastrophic representations Virilio describes. You are compelled to pause and reflect.
In distant suffering I: Syrian Skies | 1,000 days (2015), this strategy of foregrounding the process of mediation, while establishing an initial ambiguity of the material’s representative contents is developed further. Magnifications of clouds scanned from printed newspapers draw attention to their composition of different patterns of dotted ink. At the same time, the absence of the landscapes that were below the clouds in the original images invites you to enjoy the scene like you might contemplate the sky in a 17th century Dutch painting. This beauty and apparent peacefulness of the isolated clouds and the accompanying process of mediation are juxtaposed with the eerie reference to the war in Syria that is provided by the title of the work. Slowed down by the work’s seductive visual appeal, the confrontation with the painful implications of the source of the clouds unfolds itself in the foreground of your mind.
These disruptions of the high-speed digital media landscape that occur during encounters with the finished work are not the only locus of Overvliet’s interventions though. A possibly even more radical interruption of what Virilio calls ‘the cult of speed’ takes place during the creation process. Instead of taking advantage of the latest software solutions to make image processing, graphic design, data collection and categorization faster and easier, Overvliet spends hundreds of hours conducting individual Google searches, cutting and gluing prints of digital images with scissors and a glue stick, and fiddling with the space bar and the return key of his undermine
gluing prints of digital images with scissors and a glue stick, and fiddling with the space bar and the return key of his old inefficiency of Overvliet’s engagement with digital technologies is a significant component of his desire to undermine the ideological framework that surrounds digital media. Overvliet’s work process rejects the logic of process optimization and efficiency that usually accompanies everyday consumer technologies. Thus, the temporally disruptive quality of his work is also established by the often make-shift digital (and non-digital) processing of its materials.
In distant suffering IVX, i.d. of a shared cloud, the ‘book’ (201718), Overvliet includes us in his laborious creation process. Instead of a finished book, we are offered a box filled with a pile of paper sheets with a grid outline, accompanied by 1000 stickers. Each sticker shows a downloaded image of a cloud on which a set of geographical coordinates – sourced from a publicly accessible online military database – are superimposed. Here, Overvliet revisits the theme of the seemingly innocent cloud, this time connected to mapping technologies, a decisive facilitator of imperialist expansion since colonial times; ‘to conquer […] global life, one must be able to map it’ (Patel and Moore, 2017). These two components, the clouds and the mapping coordinates, are both sourced from the virtually endless public information-pool available through the internet. This makes both the images’ individual contents and the interrelationships between coordinates and clouds appear arbitrary at first. However, Overvliet gives us an assignment: We can only obtain the work if we commit to sticking all 1000 images to the pages, one by one. Over the duration of multiple hours, we are required to make decisions on the order of the images, as well as concentrate on placing each sticker carefully onto the page,
sticker carefully onto the page, an activity reminiscent of the now archaic practice of the picture card album. What seemed like an arbitrary mess of data at first, is turned into puzzle of sorts, where we are invested in giving each piece its proper place. The true relationship between the clouds and the coordinates is never disclosed, but our repetitive, concentrated engagement with each individual instance confronts us with the uncanniness of quantified space in combination with the clouds as ambiguous double references to the forces of nature and human violence.
Instead of providing us with a slick and streamlined finished art object, Overvliet’s ‘book’ challenges us to join him in a slow, detailed – and potentially frustrating – engagement with contemporary media. Thus, the work doesn’t provide us with an endpoint, but instead creates a breathing space. A moment to step outside the numbing, high-speed stream of fear-inducing media spectacles, and ask ourselves the question: “What must we do?”
References
Paul Virilio (2012).
The Administration of Fear. Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).
Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore (2017).
A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A guide to capitalism, nature, and the future of the planet. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.
A long-term project like DISTANT SUFFERING is impossible to work out on your own. Apart from all the people living in my library, I also want to thank the people who made the execution and exhibitions possible: Willy van Houtum, Giel Louws, Dani Ploeger, Jorieke Rottier, Peter Steutel, Loek Overvliet, Ingrid Rollema, Robbert Jan Swiers, Rinus Roepman, Jan VerhaegheBE, Chris GreenwoodGB, Suzanne Groothuis, Alina AchenbachLB/DE, Ruben HordijkNL/SE, Anne HordijkBRD, leon riekwell, Loek Grootjans, Hendrik Driessen, Harmen Eijsenga († 2017), jen en Frie GosséBE, Maarten van ’t Hof, Johan de Koning, Leni van den Berge, Ramon de Nennie († 2024), Manuel ZoiaIT , Fred van den Berge († 2017), Martina ButtiglieriIT , Fiek Smitskamp, Frank ÅsnesNO , Rolf van der Mije, Luuk
Vulders, Niek Hendriks, Mehreen HashmiPK, Klio KrajewskaGB , Mohammed Al jawariGaza, Jacob JühlDK, Ko de Jonge, Klaartje Esch, Roman RejholdCZ, Kees de Valk († 2019), Riet van Gerven, Kate ŠtroblováCZ, Yvette LardinoisNO , Sasha Rose RichterDK , Christine Veraart, Virginie Gmelich Meijlingt van Dooren, Lukáš JasanskýCZ , Julia Fidder, Jan Gmelich Meijlingt († 2021), Pamela GrombacherDK, Hans Bommeljé, Jochem Weststrate, JanWillem van Rijnberk, Pim Steinman, Eva Langerak, Sylvia Hubrouck, Kris van der Hart, Cecilie BerntsDK , Huibert-Jan Vader, Hynek ŠnajdarCZ , Masoud ShahsavariSE , Hans EnemanBE , Rikard FåhraeusSE , Laetitia DeschampsSE, Jannike BrantåsSE , Roel van der LindenNL/CZ (Lípa), Alice MáselníkováSE , Rana
AnaniLB, Sebastian Bern-burgLB, Wilfried Agricola de CologneBRD, Yarina ButkowskaUA , Olga & Oleg KharchenkoUA , Ivan Van de CappelleBE, David DelifioraUSA , Dina MattarGaza , Raed IssaGaza, Jörn BurmesterDK , Frie J. JacobsBE, Stef Fridael, Robin Weijers, piet
Robin Weijers, Harriët Rade-makers, Ormira LulaniAL , Beste
GürsuTR, Helidon HalitiAL, Galid Al Kholani Al FakeehYEM , Zake
PrelvukajKOS , Jürgen O. OlbrichBRD (NO-INSTITUTE), Geert
VerbekeBE (Verbeke Foun-dation), André Smits, Tineke SchuurmansBE, Marie VerbovenBE (Verbeke Foundation), Adam RoussopoulosUSA, Jatun RisbaRS , Franco G. LiveraRS , Issam Al Kholani Al Fakeeh, Bo de Jong, Zeus Hoenderop, Iris Van ’t Bos, Geeske Pluijmers, Tineke Smit, Ulrike E.W. ScholderBRD, Dirk D. KnickhoffBRD, Elisabeth SchinkBRD, Ruggero MaggiITÁRG, Emillio
MorandiIT, GordanaSP, Silvio De GraciaBR, Lutz AndersBRD, Luiz
Sacilotto & Marcia RosenbergerBR, Sait ToprakTR, Chris Kors, and the numerous participants in the poster project I.D. OF INEQUALITY.
exhibitions / art-related activities | selection
2024 – 2025
KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation (November 17, 2024 – April 2025)
oeuvre retrospective | curator Marie Verboven
VeniceItaly | Visione Altre Galleria (February 1 – February 16)
Art direction: Adolfina de Stefani | Antonello Mantovani
2024
Middelburg | Roofprintpers | Leporello (November 29, 2024 – January 1, 2025)
curator Leni van den Berge
A selection of my paper collages 1999 – 2012, is published in BALLUSTRADA, idiosyncratic literary magazine since 1986, volume 38 no.1/2, spring 2024
curator Ko de Jonge
İzmirTurkey | Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi (May 15 – 21, 2024)
curator Güzel Sanatlar Fakültesi
Burgh-Haamstede | Bewaerschole | MIGRATION (August 24 – September 22)
curator Geeske Pluijmers
KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation | winter exhibition | exhibition collages
curator Marie Verboven
Municipality of Middelburg | Makers Scheme:
Hallways, a study / images of corridors and halls in private homes and (semi-) government buildings in Middelburg.
Vlissingen | ik geef je mijn raam – I give you my window
presentation project Sylvia Hubrouck
a selection of poetic videos - LOOKING THROUGH THE EYE OF W. #1, in conjuction with the film festival Film by the Sea
2023
ChaskaU.S.A. | THE ARTISTAMP REVUE | Curator Adam Roussopoulos
StockholmSweden | Slipvillan | Curator team Studio44
Dishoek - Bunker WWII | curator leon riekwell
KemzekeBelgium | Verbeke Foundation | all paper collages 1999 -2012 are included in the collection of collages and assemblages by Geert and Carla Verbeke-Lens selection shown at the winter exhibition collages ’23-‘24 | curator Marie Verboven
AarhusDenmark | Juxtapose Art Fair | Curated by Cecilie Bernts, Pamela Grombacher, Sasha Rose Richter and Jacob Juhl
Middelburg | ruimteCAESUUR with Gallery Durden and Ray | Curated by Jorieke Rottier
StockholmSweden | Längholmen | KEEP ON BREATHING | Curator Masoud Shahsavari
Los AngelesU.S.A. | with ruimteCAESUUR at Gallery Durden and Ray | Curated by Carlos Beltran Arechiga
Middelburg | Smith Art | Curated by Johan de Koning
KleveGermany | kunstverein bahnhof24
2022
LahorePakistan | In the glare of grey moon | Ranrez art gallery | Curator Mehreen Hashmi
BruggesBelgium | Expect an Occasional Attack … and Flee | CultuurCentrum Brugge | Curator Jan Verhaeghe
Geelong Australia | KART | David Delifiora
PragueCzech Republic | LIPA art collection
Peace letters to Ukrain #2Germany [ no. 38 – video i.d. of a shared bullet ]
BeirutLebanon | Kite project as part of the exhibition Salute to the Prisoners of Freedom Art Exhibition at Institute for Palestinian Studies
Curator Sebastian BernburgU.K., Arts Coordinator London
StockholmSweden | presenting teamCAESUUR with Giel Louws and i.d. of a shared bullet
Supermarket Independent Art Fair | curator Alice Máselníková, Creative Director
StockholmSweden | part of the summer exhibition in Slipvillan | Curator team Studio44
Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | Luxfer Open Space | part of the presentation of the Lípa Art Collection
Curator/collector Roel van der Linden
TiranaAlbania | part of the (first) Tirana Biennial of Graphic Arts - first edition | Art Gallery of Tirana
curators Beste GürsuTurkey, Helidon HalitiAlbania, Zake PrelvukajKosovo
2021 – 2022
StockholmSweden | Studio44 | December 6, 2021 – January 6, 2022
Curator Rikard Fåhraeus
2021
Česká SkaliceCzech Republic | Luxfer Open Space | residency
AarhusDenmark | Juxtapose Art Fair | Curator Sasha Rose Richter
2020
Zeeland | Art Magazine decreet | Also in the public space of Middelburg
MilanItaly | MEN OF (street art) | Independent Artists | Curator Martina Buttiglieri
Tilburg | Steal like an Artist! | Kunstpodium ‘T’
Curated by Lost Painters | Niek Hendrix
2019
KarachiPakistan | Kabutar 1 | Curator Mehreen Hashmi
Milantaly | Kabutar 2 | Manuel Zoia Gallery
Watermans Arts CentreEngland | London | exhibition D.R.H.A.
Curator Klio Krajewska
2018
Willem Twee art space | Den Bosch | DISTORTION |
Curator Loek Grootjans
2014 - 2017
Middelburg | Abby Complex | Iconoclastic Fury | 2017
Amersfoort | Biënnale Foreign Guests | 2016
Gouda | Art Gouda | het Weeshuis | 2016
SYMPOSION | Gorinchem | 2015
Mon Capitaine - Middelburg | 2015 | solo
AntwerpBelgium | (WOOT) | solo | 2015
Vlissingen | Willem3 / Goes | W45 kunstruimte | 2014
1999 – 2014
Le Secet | 2014
CBK Rotterdam | 2013
Veere | SPRING | Grote Kerk Veere | 2012
Kunstuitleen Terneuzen | 2011 | solo
Stadsgehoorzaal Middelburg, Foyer | 2009 | solo
Sanders Geluk: PROJECT ARTIST-IN-CARAVAN | Kunstsuper Rotterdam | 2007
1/1 ALMOST GENUINE | CBK Zeeland Summer Studio | Middelburg | 2006 | duo
Jan van Leeuwen Stichting | Middelburg | 2005 | solo
[LOGO! NO LOGO?] | BrughesBelgium | 2003
VERDER TERUG | Trechter 5, Goes | 2002
Koetshuis van de Groep Planning, BruggeBelgium | Brughes Cultural Capital Europe | 2002 | solo
RAAMWERK | OostendeBelgium | 2001
ENGAGÉ! - West-VlaanderenBelgium, Zeeland, Nord-Pas de CalaisFrance | 2000
Galerij Germinahof | Sterksel | 2000 | duo
Presentatieruimte De Overslag | Eindhoven | 1999 | solo
Financial support
Mondrian Fund
SBKM / Vleeshal Middelburg
Frits Lensvelt Stichting
KulturrådetSweden
Region StockholmSweden
Awards, residencies, commissions and public collections
Winner Global Arts Award 2020 from Red Line Art Works, a UK-based global arts project, category art series
Sea foundation | Tilburg | [ residence ] September – October 2018 / Mondrian Fund
Work in private collections, Independent ArtistsItaly , Ramírez Art GalleryPakistan, LIPACzech Republic ,
Karpuchina GalleryCzech Republic , The Institute for Palestine StudiesLebanon | Palestine | London | Washington
Public spaces in Axel and Neeltje Jans
Art-related activities Hans Overvliet as part of his art praxis
2015 - 2021 Co-initiator of Association Art House Zeeland, platform for artists
2012 - Co-creator / co-curator Kunstpark Vlissingen / Landscape Art Park Vlissingen
2009 - 2019 Chairman Foundation Studio Complex KipVis
2009 - 2014 Chairman Foundation decreet / concrete, Art magazine decreet
2005 - 2012 Chairman PLUS MIN Foundation, Renesse, succeeded by IK Foundation, Vlissingen
1995 - Founder, curator and co-director of Art Space ruimteCAESUUR
1995 - Curator / art educational projects / advising governmental institutions on art
hans overvliet
studio address | Dreesstraat 2, Vlissingen
+31 6 282 77 052
www.hansovervliet.com
curiositas@zeelandnet.nl
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Hans Overvliet | DISTANT SUFFERING
W.F.T. van Houtum
Since 2013, by means of the ongoing art-series DISTANT SUFFERING, the Dutch artist Hans Overvliet investigates the role of the media in their representation of (military) violence. This, in the context of themes as perception, memory and identity formation. Overvliet uses a various range of media, symbols and codes, bringing together dichotomies like beauty and violence, refinement and brutality, the sublime and the vulgar.
As a reporter, Overvliet was an eyewitness to the events in the Middle East during the 1980s. Of course these experiences resonate in DISTANT SUFFERING. So aspects of power, politics, exclusion, censorship and the connection between artist, artwork and viewer infiltrate his multifaceted conceptual oeuvre.
Martha Jager, curator Vleeshal in Middelburg about the oeuvre: The dedication to art as a relational verb is central to Overvliet's work. On the one hand, the balance between poetry and criticism is special, so that the work never becomes bitter or pedantic, while at the same time the dialogue with the viewer is actively maintained. It is a tender form of activism that moves and urges action and also continuously questions the role of art.
Elements of distant suffering were exhibited in the Netherlands, Belgium, Pakistan, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Albania, Germany, Lebanon, the U.S.A., Brasil, Argentina and Sweden.
In 2023, his whole body of paper collages ( 1999 – 2012 ) joined Geert Verbeke’s renowned collection of collages and assemblages.
In 2024 - 2025 the whole oeuvre of DISTANT SUFFERING was exhibited in the museum part of the Verbeke Foundation. All the work will then be included in the permanent collection.
Hans Overvliet was born in Leiden in 1952; he lives in Middelburg and works in Vlissingen, both in the province of Zeeland in the South-West of the Netherlands. Next to his art-work he is, together with his wife Willy van Houtum, the founder and every day guardian of the 29-year old space for contemporary art: ruimteCAESUUR.
Here you’ll find his extended portfolio.
